My Tennis Angel
by BrookeLong
Summary: Brooke plays tennis, and is really good at it. Her family moves to Japan and Brooke gets her own angel. She fights her way to the national, but is she determined enough to beat Misaki?
1. Power Out

Brooke sat down on the bench after her tennis lesson. Well, actually she was the one giving the lesson today. She was the assistant coach. The real coach, Coach Mary, was sick and had asked Brooke to teach today. She had heard the desperation in her voice and had agreed. And it was really easy to teach. Brooke had been playing since she was four and now that she was fourteen she was getting close to be at the professional level. It shocked her when she thought about it, but it was true. If she learned a little bit more she could easily qualify for the professional.

But for now she was just happy to be playing. Most of the kids had already gone home or had been picked up. The last boys was throwing a tennis ball up in the air and catching it. He dropped it a couple times, but was slowly getting better. A car horn came out and he left. Then Brooke was left all alone. She figured she might as well head home seeing as no one else was there. She took her racket and bent over to pick up her water bottle when she saw something under the bench. It was a pink tennis ball.

Brooke remembered it as it belonging to Anna, a six-year-old girl with brown hair and green eyes. Brooke herself had light brown hair with blonde highlights, and blue-gray eyes. She picked up the ball and felt it in her hand. It was a little smaller than most balls, and as she bounced it on the ground she found it a little bouncier. She put her water bottle back down and walked over to the backboard with her racket and the ball. She served it hard and it came right back. She could see why Anna liked it.

She kept up with it like a bullet. She ran fast and didn't miss a ball once. She hit it thirty-seven times before her legs began to feel a little stress. But she didn't stop. She kept on going till she hit eighty, then ninety, then finally one hundred!

Finally when she couldn't run anymore she stopped and let the ball bounce a couple times of the ground before she went and retrieved it. She leaned up against the fence and breathed heavily. She had a stitch in her side and rubbed it. She had forgotten to stretch again before she started to play again. Now she was paying for it.

She heard a honk and looked up the hill where the parking lot. She saw her older sister in her car, a green Saturn. She grabbed her water from the inside bench and pocketed the pink ball. She ran up the steps and leaned into her sister's car by the open window.

"What Aimee? I'm supposed to ride my bike home today." She retorted impatiently. She had left her blue bike down the hill, against the fence. She raised an eyebrow and waited for her sister's answer to why she was here unannounced. Aimee sighed.

"Mom wanted you home now. She usually lets you stay late but she wants you home earlier today. Get your bike and put it in the back seat. Brooke gave an "Uhh." She glanced back at her bike and then looked in the back seat.

"It's not going to fit." She said unbelievingly.

"Oh, I'll make it fit." Aimee said getting out of the car. She ran down to the court and Brooke saw her pick up the bike and walk back up with it. She set it down next to the car and then popped open the trunk and rummaged around in it or a second, finally pulling out a wrench. She went over to the bike and lowered the handles and seat. It became considerably smaller. With the help of Brooke she barely fitted it in the small car.

"C'mon." She told her sister. Brooke sighed and got into the passenger side seat. Closing the door behind her she raised her head up towards the sky. She saw it was getting cloudier and that it looked like it was going to rain. She thought this was the reason her mom wanted her home. Even if she rode as fast as she could she probably would have got caught in the rain. It was a fifteen-minute ride from the courts to her house, but a thirty-minute ride with a bike. She tried to put her head back against the rest, but ne of the bike's handle was sticking over her seat. She improvised by leaning her head on the window. She realized she had forgotten to cover the tennis balls, but Aimee was already driving away. She wanted to tell her to stop, but once she got driving she didn't stop till she got to her destination, like their dad.

They had gone past the school before either of them said anything. It was Brooke who spoke first.

"Aren't you supposed to be working right now?" She wondered. Aimee had a job at Dunkin' Doughnuts/ Baskin Robins. She usually didn't stop working past four, and she worked every day after school

"Well somehow a kid got back behind the counter. I think it was Nick who wasn't watching what was going on, you know how lazy he is. I can't even believe they hired him. Anyway a kid got back and broke half of the machines. My boss got so mad he banned the kid from coming again and closed the shop. But he gave us each a dozen of left over doughnuts. It could take a while before the machines are fixed and we can reopen. Hard to believe, we've barely even been open for a month." Aimee added slapping the wheel. Brooke nodded in agreement.

She gently banged her head against the window and went back to watching the sights go by. They were almost half way home when the rain started to come down. It was the rain of the latest hurricane. It came down hard and Aimee could barely see where she was going. She finally pulled over in a church parking lot. They couldn't seen out of any of the window's and it was getting very muggy and humid

Brooke took a large sniff and smelled something good. Aimee noticed her.

"Oh yeah, I stopped at McDonalds and got something to eat. There are some fries left and the doughnuts and under them. Help yourself. I dot know how long we're going to be stuck here. Brooke unbuckled and reached over in the back seat. She found the fries first, Aimee had gotten a large and had hardly eaten any of it. She picked one up and found that it was still warm. Brooke and Aimee munched on them for a while before finally finishing them off. The rain was still coming down hard and it was still impossible to see anything outside of the car.

Brooke opened up the front compartment and pulled out a book she had snuck in there. Aimee looked at her strangely, but didn't say anything. Brooke groaned and began to read. She didn't get far before her eyes fell heavy and she yawned loudly. She blinked a few time before she fell asleep.

"Brooke wake up." Aimee said shaking her sister. Brooke's eyes fluttered before her vision became clear.

"Wha?" She muttered groggily, "Where ar' we?" She pushed herself up and her book fell off of her chest.

"Home. The rain stopped barely a couple minutes ago. We were at the parking lot for over an hour." She grabbed Brooke's arm and helped her out of the car. She then pulled Booke's bike out. Brooke herself grabbed the doughnuts and sluggily walked up the steps and into her house where her German Shepard greeted her. Followed behind her was Brooke's little brother Cobey.

She patted Maple and grabbed Cobey's hand. She led him into the kitchen where she sat him on the counter. The little two-year-old just looked at her with his green eyes, and watched her as she made Raman Noodles. He got a hungry look on his face as Brooke scooped some into a bowl for him, then one for her.

They both went into the living room where Aimee was already sitting on the couch watching TV. She was watching the Japanese channel. The trio's dad was from Japan so he taught them Japanese when they were little. Cobey was still learning of course. But even so half of the shows were in English. It was Brooke's favorite channel, it had most of her favorite shows. She held her chopsticks full of Ramen to her mouth and slightly slurped them. She listened to the end credits of the previous show, which was n Japanese.

A few commercials came one and then the next program started. This time it was in English. Cobey coughed, so Brooke couldn't hear the title. An announcers voice came on and Brooke was suddenly drawn in. She hung onto every word, she didn't even notice Aimee was doing it too. Cobey had just put his empty bowl on his head and laughed.

"Welcome to the final battle of the Angelic Layer competition! Last years champion in the east side, Misaki Suzuhara!" The crowd went wild at the little girl's name. The camera did a close up of her and Brooke saw she was short and had brown hair styled in a different way and blue eyes. She was obviously was wearing some school's uniform. On her shoulder was a pink, red, and white angel. Its eyes were closed and it looked really cool in Brooke's opinion.

"And her challenger from the west side, Nikomi Tanayhami!" The crowd still cheered, but Brooke definitely heard the volume lower than the cheers for Misaki. Nikomi wore her red hair loose and she wore black slacks and a green shirt.

"The layer for this battle will be…" The announcer said as a screen above the white table flashed different settings. It got faster and faster before it finally stopped on a brown dirt field with a volcano.

"The layer for this battle will be a volcano! Sometime during this battle lava will flow down. If your angel touches it all points will be lost, but since this is fake lava it won't do and permanent damage to your angel. You might just have to get some more angel armor. Other layer out rules also apply of course. Now enter the angels!" He yelled into his microphone.

Misaki held her angel high above her head and shouted out words.

"Angel wings! Please guide me and Hikaru!" She threw her angel into the white light and Hikaru's eyes opened. Brooke saw them as pink like her hair. Hikaru landed on her feet and got into a fighting stance. She waited for her opponent.

"Jasmine! Find you strength and win!" Nikomi threw Jasmine the angel in the layer. Jasmine was wearing brown Chinese looking pants with a see-through blue ribbon around her waist. She wore a brown tube top and brown strips of cloth over her shoulder. Brooke could see that her elbows and wrist had uncovered joints. On her face she had a blue cloth like her belt over her nose and mouth. Her hands had brown fingerless gloves with a wavy edge. Her feet had dainty brown slippers with the same blue ribbon covering half of it. She landed gently in the layer and went into a curtsy, but her hands were in a position almost identical to Hikaru's.

"Now, ANGELIC FIGHT!" The announcer said. Jasmine rose up and charged towards Hikaru. Hikaru waited till Jasmine got close and then dodged. She grabbed Jasmine's arm and pushed her back. She tripped and then Hikaru, who was still holding onto the arm pulled her up and then slammed her into the ground behind her. She still didn't let go.

Brooke's mouth dropped a little bit, her ramen totally forgotten. Cobey had found it though. Most of it was gone now. He didn't have a clue what was happening, but Brooke and Aimee were totally mesmerized.

Jasmine had managed to escape and was trying to lay a punch of Misaki again. She threw a punch and Hikaru dodged again, but then she did something surprising. Jasmine continued to run forward, and grabbed both of Hikaru's legs. Misaki was totally surprised. Jasmine pounded Hikaru on the ground and then twirled around. She was also slowly walking towards the edge of the volcano. She suddenly stopped and Hikaru was rammed into the side of the hard rock. She fell limp against the ground. Brooke looked at her stats and saw they were getting low. But she then saw something in Misaki's eyes.

Hikaru put her hands firmly into the ground and pulled her legs forward. Nikomi was confused and Jasmine let go of Hikaru's legs. Nonetheless she was still thrown over and she fell against the ground once more. Hikaru regained her stance and the crowd went crazy. But then a loud rumbling came from volcano and smoke could be seen from the top. The lava was coming. Both angels briefly forgot the fight as the bright red and charcoal black came pouring out of the tip. It was rolling down the step hill. But it seemed to be following slightly carved trails.

Hikaru bravely ran up the hill not looking back. Jasmine hesitated and then followed in suit. They were both heading right towards the lava. Suddenly Hikaru stopped and Jasmine didn't. She ran right into Hikaru, making her fall towards the lava. A couple of the people in the audience screamed. Then in a flash Hikaru grabbed Jasmine and used her as a shield from the lava. Jasmine hit it with Hikaru on top of her, barely avoiding the scorching flow. The layer disappeared and Hikaru got off Jasmine whose points were all gone. Brooke saw that she didn't have any burns, but her top was starting to fall off. Then she nearly cried as Hikaru pulled her up, held her shirt together, and then laid her down at the edge of the layer by her Deus. The crowd cheered louder than they had the few seconds before.

"The winner for her second year in a row Misaki Suzuhara and her angel Hikaru! They continue to show their strengths while being incredibly kind to other angels they have had to hurt in order to win their battles. Let give a cheer for her!" The crowd clapped and cheered out her name. Misaki who was already holding Hikaru in her hand bushed.

"And give a cheer for our courageous loser Nikomi Tanayhami and her angel Jasmine!" The crowd cheered for her just like they did for Misaki. Nikomi was holding Jasmine and had put a piece of cloth around her chest area. She nervously waved and then shook Misaki's hand. She then left the arena.

"Now our champion will face the ultimate Deus-." They never heard more than that. The power went off and Brooke and Aimee were shaken out of their trance. They looked outside and saw that the rain had started this time, looking even more ferouscious. They saw that a tree had fallen on an electrical wire. As Cobey started to cry Brooke picked him up and took the bowl off his head while Aimee closed the blinds. Their mother came into the room with a couple of flashlight and an oil lamp, and some few candles. The formed a circle in the center of the room. They had lit all the candles, had all the flashlights on, and the lamp was glowing brightly in the center of them. Aimee was in the middle of making a fire in the fireplace. Cobey was sitting on Brooke's lap with a blanket around them.

Their mom explained the situation. They weren't in life treating danger, but every one was told it was mandatory to stay inside. She had briefly heard it on the radio before the power went out. She then preceded to ask while the girls hadn't noticed the rain. Slowly they began to tell their story of the angel battle. The talk continued into the night where they all fell asleep on the floor, covered in blankets and using couch cushions as pillows.

**A/N: Well what do you think? I tried to make it as realistic as possible. It was kinda long, but rather well written I thought. Please tell me what you think. **


	2. Only Available in Japan

**A/N: Next chapter for My Tennis Angel! Yay! To clear up something the setting right now is not in America, but actually in London. I don't know if they have hurricane's in Europe, but I didn't know what else to call it. A big storm I guess, but how exciting does that sound? Anyway I should have mentioned that in the first chapter. But instead of making AL come to Europe, I'm going to move the family to Japan. That's why I gave them a Japanese history, making it easier on my part. So, hope you like this chapter as much as the next and thank everyone who already reviewed. I hope more people do in the future.**

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A loud thump came from outside the closed window. Brooke's eyes slowly opened and found herself laying on the floor with Maple next to her. She just laid there on the floor, listening to Maple's breathing, and the few last rain drops drop onto the roof. She turned over onto her side and pushed herself up. Cobey had moved over next to his mom, and Brooke had to untangle the blanket from her legs. Brooke stumbled over to the window and pushed open the blinds. It was morning and the sun had already risen. The sky was as blue as it was before the storm, the only difference a light drizzle was still coming from it. The ground looked much different also. Many branches were on the ground and another two small trees were uprooted.

"Guess how many days that will take to clean up?" Aimee said. Brooke gasped scared, she turned around to find her sister sitting on a brown chair in the corner. She wondered how she hadn't noticed she wasn't still sleeping.

"I don't even want to think about that. I just hoped school is canceled, that would be so sweet. We'll miss the three-mile run and the crunches test." Brooke said hopefully.

"Don't worry about that. The school will be closed for at least three days. The power is still out here and there. Plus you remember that old tree by the track? The storm knocked it over and totally damaged a huge section of runway. It won't be rebuilt till next year. I looked it up on the Internet. Plus Miss Kenny and Mr. Condon will just make you run around the school instead of the track." Aimee told her, walking over and closing the blinds again.

"Keep them closed. You'll wake Cobey, and he won't like that." She winked to her sibling and went back to the chair. She then began to write with her quill, which she had gotten for a present, and didn't talk anymore. But Brooke who was already bored out of her mind, wanted to keep this conversation going.

"How did you get on the Internet? I thought the power was out." Her quill still scratching Aimee replied.

"I have a laptop computer remember. It was charging while we were watching the Angelic Layer competition. So the battery is still full. It's the only power we really have." She stopped writing and sighed.

"I'm going up to Mentor today. Want to come? We can see if there's anything about Angelic Layer there. Maybe we can start playing." She wiped the quill off with a napkin and put the cap back on her inkbottle.

"Sure when can we leave?"

"When you're ready. I've just finished writing a note to mom and said I'm taking you with me." Brooke nodded and left the room, appearing a couple minutes later changed and with all her makeup on.

"I'm guessing you didn't fold up your tennis outfit did you?" Brooke groaned and went to put her outfit away. She did like it, but her mom and sister seemed to make a big deal about it. There was nothing really special about it. It was just a blue skirt and white tennis shirt, she even wore it to school sometimes. She picked it from the bed where she had lain in and hung it up in her closet. She went back into the living room where she found Aimee all ready with her keys in hand. They left in silence, taking the Saturn again.

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"What! Only available in Japan!" Brooke exclaimed

"Yes that's right. Angelic Layer won't be open to other countries for at least another year." The store clerk said to her in a calm voice, although it was obvious she was getting annoyed at Brooke's sudden attitude change. Brooke groaned and walked away from the counter. She found Aimee looking at the new video games.

_"I bet those are out of style in Japan. Everyone is probably to hooked into Angelic layer." _She though to herself. Aimee picked one up and then looked at another. This continued for another ten minutes, when Brooke began to tap her foot loudly and her sister picked up the one she had looked at first. She paid for it and they left Leiko's Ultimate Electronic store.

It was a twenty-minute ride before they got back home. Brooke had a definite gloom hung over her and Aimee didn't dare talk to her. When they finally got home Brooke kicked a stone and walked up the stairs, trying to look happier. It could have fooled anyone, except her family. When they got inside they found her mom and brother already awake, along with Maple. And their dad was back too. They looked different in a weird way.

"What's going on?" Aimee asked.

"You're going to have a baby aren't you?" Brooke said in surprise.

"Brooke!" Aimee said, poking her sister with her elbow. Brooke stuck the tip of her tongue at her sister, but she just laughed.

"No that's not it, we're moving to Japan!"

"What!" They siblings said simultaneously, Cobey just said "Doggy." And petted Maple's head.

"We've been thinking about it for a while. When we moved here with Aimee this placed was great. But when we had you Brooke and then Cobey everything changed. I don't think I can stay at home anymore, but no one can watch Cobey, and I don't want to put him in a daycare. And you're dad has been offered a higher paying job and we can move over there for free. When I say you talking about the game last night I made up my mind and told your father. We're going to move once school is over. Is that all right with you two? I don't think Cobey will mind." Their mom told them. Aimee nodded her head. Brooke knew she was sad about leaving. But her dream was to work for an authentic Japanese anime studio, and those were only in Japan. Brooke had switched school just recently and hadn't made very many friends yet. And the ones she did have, she could always keep in touch with. And as long as she could play tennis, she didn't care where she lived.

"That's fine with me. When are we moving?" She asked, but in her mind;

_"Yes! We're going to move, and I can play Angelic layer!"_

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**A/N: Voila! It is finished. It seemed to me that Brooke was a little shallow about moving, so I'll make her miss her old life a little bit in the next chapter. It will be a bit of a time lapse, I'm not going to write about four months of waiting to move. So they next chapter will be "Arriving in Japan!"**


	3. Arriving in Japan

**A/N: Chapter three. Cool I can go on this often over this weekend. My parents are out of town this weekend, it's so cool. Check out my other stories and see what you think about them. KA is my first and THA my third. My fourth will probably be a Fruits Basket, unless I get another idea for an AL one. Like I said last chp. The family is now in Japan.**

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"Look Cobey! There's the airport." Brooke said to her sleepy brother. The flight had taken the whole day and Cobey had gotten bored around noon. And the time changes didn't help him any. The Miyoko family had found a much larger house in a town a couple miles from Tokyo. Brooke and Aimee would be going to a school where they had to wear uniforms and Cobey would still be under the watchful eyes of his mom.

Brooke looked down at all the lights of the city. She felt around in her pocket and found a piece of paper with names and phone numbers along with addresses and E-mails. It contained the names of her friends she had left behind. Now that she was thousands of miles away from them, she really missed them. She had no clue she would miss them so much. Even thought she knew she would see them again. Her mom and dad promised they could visit their old home once a year.

The plane tilted sideways as it aimed for the runway. Brooke could now make out the shapes of cars and buildings. Cobey groaned and flailed around, accidentally kicking Brooke. She didn't mind much though, he was so tiny it didn't hurt. Brooke's mom stood up quickly and got her son from the seats behind them. As soon as she sat down the sign went up to stay in your seats. Aimee quickly slid over a seat to sit next to Brooke. They both stared out the window at the growing lights. Brooke blinked as she fought back tears. Everything was going to be so different. Different school, friends, house, language, _country_, _continent_. She rubbed her eyes with her coat sleeve. Aimee put her arm around her sister as the plane finally touched the black runway. A Japanese voice came out from the loudspeaker, giving instructions. Brooke understood them, but it seemed so foreign now. It would take a while to adjust.

The plane slowly rolled to a stop. It turned and connected to the terminal. More instructions came and Brooke unbuckled herself and stood up. She wobbled a bit, she was still used to the motion of the plane. She took her carry-on bag from under her seat and waited for a space to get off the plane. Her ears began to pop so she held her nose and tried to blow out. The air went up to her ears and unpoped them. Aimme took her arm as she squeezed them in between a man and a woman. They stood by the plane's door as they waited for their parents. They soon found them trudging along with their things and Cobey walking along, holding onto his mom's skirt.

The showed the guard their passports and stopped in a restaurant for a late dinner. The taking a rental car to their house they entered for the first time. It was a two story with large rooms. The rest of the family went in, but Brooke stayed by the door. She looked in the general direction of Europe. She sighed softly and rubbed her eyes again. As she blinked a small tear fell down her cheek. She quickly brushed it off and closed the door. Her family had gone upstairs to check out the rooms, so taking advantage of the quiet she looked out the window in the same direction. Brooke rested her head on her hands as she kneeled on her knees to be even with the window. In the distance she could see the flashing lights of Tokyo. She saw towers and skyscrapers, a couple cars went by and she saw another plane fly overhead.

She stood up and closed the shades. Then she turned around and walked up the stairs to find her family looking in the rooms. Her mom came out of one and beckoned Brooke over.

"I thought you could have this one. It has lots of space and it's own bathroom with a shower and tub." She said excitedly. Brooke looked around at her new room. It was much larger than her old one, and the building of it was rather unique. There was a rectangular alcove perfect for her bed. It was raised a little higher than the rest of the room, so it had a small step leading up to it. There was another small alcove to the left of her, just right for her desk and lamp. She saw the bathroom door, it to was raised, but it was little higher than the bed. There was three steps leading to it.

"You can pick out the flooring and wall color too. Your dad's company said they could pay for it, they are so desperate for him to take this job. So what do you think of it, do you like it?" Her mom asked.

"Yes. It's so big and perfect for me." She said truthfully, her spirits were lifted a little bit. She knew she was going to have bigger room, but not this big. And to design the way she wanted it exactly, that was the best part.

"Good. The movers will be here later tonight actually. We're not going to get much sleep. That's why I told you to sleep s much on the plane. But we are going to put Cobey down now. There's a little cot in the closet. That's the third door on the left. Can you go get it for me sweetie?"

"Mom, what about Maple?" Brooke asked before leaving.

"She'll be here tomorrow. Her plane left a couple hours after ours. And it makes and extra stop, because of the different animal needs. She will be just fine." Her mom told her calmly, knowing Brooke really loved Maple. She was supposed to be the family dog, but was really Brooke's. Brooke left her room and got the cot for Cobey. Her mom came back out and took her to Cobey's room. It was about the size of Brooke's old room, and it didn't have Brooke's alcove and bathroom.

"His is only three." Mrs. Miyoko said. She took the cot from Brooke, set it up, and put a blanket on it. Brooke waited while she rounded up Cobey, and then helped put the cranky three-year-old to bed. They quietly turned off the lights and closed the door.

"Hey Brooke, come here." Brooke heard her name called. Aimee was coming towards her.

"Let me show you my room." She led Brooke to the room next to her. It was a little bigger than Brooke's, and had the same bed place as hers, except it was on a different wall. She also had a bathroom, but it wasn't raised. There was also a desk alcove too. The only other difference was Aimee's room had a fan, and it looked brand new.

"Cool, what color are you going to use for your room?" Brooke asked. Aimee thought.

"Dunno yet. Probably a light green wall and a pinkish carpet. I'm also thinking a pink header. What about you?" She replied.

"Something blue of course, and a really fuzzy carpet." She answered, looking around the room once more. They heard a knock on the door and her dad answered it. He spoke in Japanese and told them it was the movers.

"That was quick." Mrs. Miyoko said, rushing down the stairs from the next room. Brooke took a quick peek inside and found it was a bathroom. She saw a measuring tape on the counter and knew her mom was taking measurements. Brooke followed her mom downstairs, and Aimee followed her. A bunch of men were coming in the house with boxes of stuff. Brooke's mother came over to her.

"Brooke could you go watch Cobey. If he wakes up, just sing him back to sleep." She left again suddenly. Brooke yawned and trudged back up the stairs. She quietly entered her brother's room to find him still sleeping. She took her shoes off and creeped over to the cot. The moonlight was shining through window so she could see where she was going. Brooke sat down and rested her head on her hands. Nothing happened for a while, just some talking and a couple of thumps. Half and hour later some loud thumps came up the stairs. Cobey woke up in an instant. He began to cry and when he saw Brooke he ran over to her and jumped in her lap. He threw his arms around her and nearly knocked her backwards.

"Aaah, Cobey. Let go of the hair, watch the hair." She gently pulled her brother's finger from her hair and held him close till he settled down. He stopped crying, but was still sniffling. Brooke began to hum a lullaby and in fifteen minutes he was asleep again. She gently put him back on the cot and covered him with the blanket. She yawned again and lay down on the floor. Before she knew it, she was asleep.

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"Come on Brooke, hurry up." Aimee shouted to her sister. It was two days later and the family had gone shopping for new stuff, except for their dad who had to go to work. It was now around three in the afternoon. They had chosen the paint they wanted and the carpet, which was getting installed the next day. Aimee had gotten her header and Brooke the perfect-color-of-blue-fuzzy carpet. Brooke was staggering because she had offered to carry a lot of the bags. As soon as she got to the black Suburban she loaded them into the back and climbed in.

"Are we goin ome ow?" Cobey asked in his cute little voice.

"Nope, we have one more stop." His mom replied. Brooke and Aimee looked at each other, they thought this was the last stop too. An idea popped into Brooke's head and she whispered it to her sister. She agreed and they both waited anxiously as their mom pulled out of the parking lot. They traveled for ten minutes before pulling into a parking lot with a beige building.

"Yes! Thanks mom!" Brooke yelled before jumping out of the car. She waited for a car to go by before going into the store. It was Piffle Princess, the store that carried angel eggs. A couple seconds later Aimee came in, followed by their mom who was carrying Cobey. As soon as they came in Brooke wandered through the self's searching though everything she would need. The day they had found out they were moving Aimee and Brooke had done research on what they needed for angels. It had drained out the batteries on Aimee's laptop, but they didn't care.

Brooke took a basket and found the shelf with angel egg boxes on them. She took the one that she came to first and put it in her basket. The nest row had a bunch of angel skins. She browsed through the different skin tones and took one that matched hers, a nice tan. She then found the hairpieces. She took a blue one that was long and thick. She took two shades of blue and a white. In the last row she found weapons. Taking a quick look she found a tennis racket with a blue rim and white face. The initials of the face were black and they were AL, which stood obviously for Angelic Layer. Going to the end of the row she found boxes for voices. She hadn't heard anything of these, but a button was on each box for a sample of the voice. She went through them slowly and found the perfect one. It was a little high with a lot of power in it. Brooke the chose a dark navy blue computer. Finally she saw wings, and it took her no time at all to choose her. They were pure white, and very fluffy and feathery like an angel's.

She went up to her mom who was waiting by main display in the center. Brooke took the basket and showed her mom what she had gotten. They then waited for Aimee, who came a couple minutes later. Their mom paid for the items and they went back into the car. Brooke held her angel egg box close and couldn't wait till they got home to finally see her angel.

"Angelic Layer!" They girl siblings yelled, as if they were twins.

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**A/N: Few wipes sweat off of forehead. That was a lot of typing for me. I think I got all the equipment. If I didn't I'll make them go back and get some more. I think this is the first chapter I said Brooke's last name. I wanted the names to be mixed. English first name, Japanese last. I'm not sure, but I think Miyoko is a first name too. Oh well, next chapter Kurasoshi and Hirobi!**


	4. Meet the Angels

**A/N: Chapter four is up. I want to say thanks again to all who have reviewed. It makes me happy to know people actually like the story and I'm not talking to myself like I usually do. Oh, and in the last chapter when I said Brooke choose various shades of a blue and some white, I was talking about angel armor. My time was running up fast so I was really pressured to finish it. This chapter will be longer because I want it to. coughs so yes, here is chapter four. Kura and Hirobi!**

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"Brooke hold up!" Aimee called after her sister. Brooke had run out of the car as fast as she had at Piffle Princess, if not faster, and was already inside the house. Maple, who had arrived a couple of days ago, bounded up to her.

"Brooke Kita Miyoko!" Her mother scolded from outside the door. Brooke groaned and set her bag down near the door, that way it was easy to get to, but not in the way of getting trampled. Brooke petted Maple and then opened the door. She reluctantly went back outside and went over to the car.

"Thank you." Her mother said sternly. She gave Brooke a couple of bags and she went inside to put them in the living room floor. After a couple trips and chasing Cobey so he didn't run into the street, she finally got her bag again and she and Aimee went into her room. Brooke's room now had her bed and desk and a new lamp her parents bought her before they had left Europe. Some posters were already up, and the wall also held some of her drawings.

Brooke and Aimee sat across from each other on the wooden floor. They first took out the box and then the angel egg. Aimee took the instructions from the front of the egg and read them aloud so Brooke could hear.

"Congratulations on getting your new angel egg. To start you creation process please drain the shock-absorbent fluids out of the egg. Please do this over a sink or tub. Do not ingest. After draining rinse your angel in lukewarm water until clean. Finally dry your angel with a towel and use your new computer for further instructions. Okay then, let's use your bathroom. It'll be easier than going to the other one."

Brooke wanted to say Duh, but she knew this was not the time. She happily followed her sister into her bathroom and positioned herself over the tub. Aimee was over the sink. Brooke found the crack in the egg and carefully opened it. The blue water substance came rushing out and Brooke tried not to get any on herself. She kept it partly closed so the angel wouldn't fall out. She heard the sound of Aimee doing the same in the sink.

When the fluids had finished draining Brooke gently took her angel out of the egg, some of the residue got on her but once she put the angel under the water it came right off. She put her other hand under the water flow to help it along faster. After half a minute she turned off the water and checked for any more signs of blue. She didn't see any so she grabbed a towel from above the tub and dried off her angel. She stole a glance over at her sister to see that she was done too. They trailed back out into Brooke's room and got their computers, Aimee's was a dark green. They sat opposite of each other and opened up the computers. Brooke pressed the on button and the screen flickered on. Another message appeared. She looked up to see if Aimee wanted her to read it aloud, but she had her own computer on and was reading it herself. Brooke read the message again.

"Step two of creating your new angel: Please take out the skin you have chosen for your angel. Place it on your angel and press the right arrow button to continue." It read. Brooke searched through the packages for the skin. She found it and took it out of the package. It looked like a small doll without any stuffing. Brooke gently worked it onto the angel and it looked much better, like a little person. She pressed the arrow button on the computer and a new screen appeared.

"Step Three: Now that the skin is applied select your hairpiece. You may now style it however you like to make your angel unique. Press the right arrow to continue." Brooke found the tiny box that held the hair. Brooke opened it and then looked at the perfect sky blue hair. She went over to her desk and took two hair scissors. She gave the black pair to Aimee, who was at the same part she was. Brooke thought for a second more and then began to snip carefully. She wanted this to be perfect no matter what. The cutting didn't take her long so she pressed the arrow.

"Now place it on your angel's head. If the style is not how you like it, this is the time to change it. Press the right arrow to continue." Brooke picked up the angel and put the hair on her. She took the blue silk ribbon from her hair and took off the perfect rectangular from it. She twisted her angel's hair and in the end tied it with the blue ribbon. She held it out at a distance and was very pleased. The thick blue hair was now transformed. She had now cut it two layers of hair. The top layer went just under the angel's ears, and pointy at the ends. The under layer was left undone till the end of the top layer. Then Brooke had braided the rest until she had gotten close to the end. That was where she had tied it with the ribbon, which ended at the waist. The end of the hair ended at the middle of the back. Brooke pressed the arrow. The computer made a small whirring sound and another screen came up.

"Step Four: This step will take the longest to create your angel. Take out your selected angel cloth and create the clothes your angel will wear. Press the right arrow button now and the computer will go in a standby mode. When you are ready to continue press the right arrow button to continue." Brooke read this one slowly, and then took out her packages of cloth. She went back to her desk and took the sewing basket off of the top. She placed it in the middle of them. She took the shade of blue the matched her angel's hair color. Brooke opened it and took out the role of cloth. To her surprise a long cord fell out also with a note stuck to it. Brooke pulled it off.

"This is your angel's angel cord. This is what connects you and your angel in battle. You must connect this cord in order to battle, although it does not matter where you put it. Each angel cloth package contains the same color as is the color of the package. This was you can choose the best color to fit your angel." She put that aside and looked at the blue cloth. Blue thread also came with it so Brooke instantly began to sew. She had the perfect idea of what she wanted, and was eager for it to be ready. Before she got to far she looked over at Aimee again. She just opening her first box of cloth. She returned her gaze back to her angel so she didn't mess it up. Brooke was glad she started this early, because the computer was right. It would take a while for this to be done. She listened carefully to the slow ticks of her clock as each stitch was formed. It was an hour before she was done with the first piece. She opened another package and took the contents out. This package was white. Brooke had a hard time getting the thread through the needle and pricked herself once or twice doing it. When she finally got it through she was already getting frustrated. Over the next half hour her tension eased. Another half hour and many ticks went by on the clock before she finished what looked to be a shirt. She added a bit of darker blue from another package to it. With the same dark blue she worked on one of the final pieces. It was another hour before she was done. Brooke went to press the button, but a knock came from the door.

Mrs. Miyoko came in with two trays with some food on it. From the smell of it Brooke could smell white chicken and buttered corn.

"I know you two want to get this done so I saved this for you two. Please bring them downstairs when you're done easting so I can wash them." She placed them down by her daughters along with a fork and a knife. She went outside the door for a second and then came back with a glass of juice for them both.

"Thanks mom." Aimee said and Brooke nodded to agree. She took the plate and began to eat. As soon as she heard the door close she began to shovel it down her throat. She cleared her plate in two minutes and her drink was gone in ten seconds. She shakily stood up, being on the floor so long your legs can fall asleep. She found her mom in the kitchen and rinsed her dishes off and then handed them to her. As Brooke ran back up the stairs she stopped to make room for Cobey who was coming down. Once he was past Brooke continued to run up and almost slammed her door, but she caught it in time and quietly closed it. Aimee took a couple more bites and left the room herself. Brooke finally pressed the button and the screen came back on.

"Once you are done sewing put the outfit on your angel. This is the time to make adjustments. Press the right arrow to continue." It took her a minute, but Brooke got it on. She just finished when Aimee came back into the room.

"Are you finished with your outfit yet?" Brooke asked. Aimee shook her head no.

"Well almost, just give me another fifteen minutes. Then it'll be ready." She went back to work, and Brooke looked over her angel. Need any adjustments, nope it was perfect. Brooke was even happier now, it had come out just the way she wanted. The angel had a white shirt on, and around the edge of the sleeves was the light blue. Around her left shoulder thought, Brooke had put a V-shaped piece of cloth. It started at the left shoulder and hid the angel's right chest area and the right shoulder. On it Brooke had put the two hues of blue around the rim. For the skirt it went above her knees and was pleated, but not all the way. Brooke had pleated it three times on the right side. She had left the rest of the skirt regular. A little bit from the bottom Brooke had put a thin piece of white that looked like it was part of the cloth, not sewn on separately. Brooke had made dark blue socks that were tight, and were just below the knees. On the angel's feet were white tennis shoes with white laces. Brooke pressed the arrow and read the next screen.

"Step Five: Please place your chosen angel cord on you angel. Then place your angel on the scanner located to the left. Press the right arrow to continue." Brooke picked up the three angel cords.

"White, light blue, or dark blue?" she repeated in her mind. After a minute she finally decided and put the dark cord around her angel's hair. Brooke had taken out the ribbon, not liking its look now, and put the cord on instead. It wasn't that long and made the perfect accessory. She placed her angel on the scanner and as soon as she pulled her hand back an orange cylinder surrounded her. She pressed the button again.

"Step Six: Chose your angel's eye color." A type box appeared and Brooke typed in Blue.

"Press the right arrow to continue." Press.

"Step Seven: Chose your angel's height. A chart has been made for your convenience." A type box and a chart of angel heights came up on the screen. Brooke scrolled through the heights and chose an angel that was short.

"Press the right arrow." Press.

"Step Eight: Heavyweight. Middleweight. Lightweight." Another box came up and Brooke chose Lightweight. In Tennis you had to be fast to get to the ball, so some of that would apply here. Power wasn't as important. It just depended on how hard you need to hit the ball. It could be powerful or very very soft.

"Press right arrow to continue." Press.

"Step Eight: Strength. Speed. Balance." Brooke chose speed.

"Press right arrow to continue." Brooke said softly to herself. Press.

"Step Nine: Enter your name. Last, first, then middle." Brooke typed in Miyoko, Brooke, Kita.

"Press right arrow to continue." Press.

"Step Ten: If have selected a voice chip please read these instructions. If you have not please press the right arrow to continue."

"To insert your voice chip please take it out of the box with the tweezers supplied. On the back of you angel's neck is a small slot where the chip should be placed. The black tip should go in first. Then place your angel back in the scanner and press voice chip. The voice chip will be sealed in your angel." Brooke took out her angel again and opened the voice chip box. She took out the small pair of tweezers and with them carefully took out the small chip. The black tip wasn't being held by the tweezers so she gently pushed it in her angel's neck. When it was firmly placed in Brooke put her angel back in the scanner. Then she pressed the voice chip button. Her computer whirred and a white light went over the orange cylinder. A pop up came up.

"Scan complete. Voice chip model KRq8g52W installed. Press right arrow to continue." Brooke pressed the button once more.

"Step Eleven: If you have purchased wings please take your angel out once more and insert the wings of the back of your angel. When done place angel back in scanner and press Insert Wings"

"How am I supposed to do that with the clothes on?" She wondered in her mind. She took the angel out once more and turned in on it's back. To her surprise there was a place to connect the wings. She quickly picked up the wings and slid it into its place. She placed it back into the scanner. She pressed insert wings and the scanner turned white again another pop up came.

"Scan complete. Wing Model Sry24c3 installed. Press right arrow to continue." Brooke pressed it once more.

"Step Twelve: Please enter your angel's name." Brooke thought again before typing. She had all this time to think of what she wanted, but had no clue. Brooke tapped her foot for a couple seconds and then sighed. She wanted it to be something personal. Maybe a combination of her friend's names. Kursosia, Soakurs, Kura, KURA! That was it. Brooke quickly typed it in before she forgot how to spell it or what it was.

"Press right ar-." Brooke began to whisper, but something else came up.

"Congratulations on your new angel. Press Enter for setup to be completed." It read.

"Figures." Brooke scoffed. She pressed enter and Kura's eyes flew open. They were the perfect blue, and she was perfect in every way.

"This totally makes up for moving." Brook thought. She took her angel out of the scanner and Kura's eyes closed. She looked over at Aimee to see her just finishing up her angel also. She scooted over and saw her press enter. She caught the name just before the screen went blank

"Hirobi-chan, huh? Sweet, it reminds me of that one show with that girl named Hirobi, oh what's it called? Darn I forgot, but it was cool and funny. Did you see it?" Brooke asked energetically. Aimee rolled her eyes.

"Brooke." She said.

"Yeah." Brooke replied.

"You're ruining the moment."

"Sah, sorry." Brooke said looking down at Hirobi. It was obvious she was supposed to be a waitress looking-like angel. She had a black waitress shirt that went up half of her neck and a little bit of white lace showed from it. The sleeves were puffed and more lace showed. She had a plain black skirt with a white lacy slip underneath. She had short black socks and white shoes, except they weren't really shoes. They were roller skates, with white laces and wheels. The angel cord was white and very thin, Aimee had tied it around Hirobi's waist. Her hair was black and long. Aimee had made two buns on each side of her hair. From each bun was a slim bit of hair braided until it couldn't be anymore. In Hirobi's hand was a silver tray.

"What are you going to do with that? Hit them in the head?" Brooke said laughing.

"That and it can also be used as a discus. What are you going to do with your racket? I suppose you don't have any balls? What are you going to do, hit them in the head with it?" Aimee replied sarcastically.

"Show what you know. In the handle were three little tennis balls, so bleh." Brooke retorted, taking out the small tennis balls and showing them to her sister.

"All right. Well we should go to bed now, that sewing worn me out." Aimee said standing up. She wobbled some also and looked at her sister.

"What?" Brooke asked.

"Go to bed."

"What if I don't want to?"

"The faster you go to sleep, the faster tomorrow will come. Then the faster we can go back to Piffle Princess and train."

"Please, that stopped working on me so long ago."

"Fine then I won't take you tomorrow."

"I'll get mom to take me."

"She has to stay and watch over the installations."

"You're cruel."

"Know I am. Now go to bed."

"I hope you fall and hurt yourself." Brooke said softly, getting her nightclothes.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"You said something."

"I said I hope you don't fall and hurt yourself."

"Okay then."

"Good."

"Fine."

"Goodbye."

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"I will."

"I'm glad you will."

"I'm glad you glad."

"I'm glad you're gone."

"I'm not gone."

"You will be soon.'

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"How're you so sure?"

"I know."

"How?"

"Because."

"That doesn't answer anything."

"Get over it."

"You're impossible."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"Sure."

"What?"

"What?"

"What did you say?"

"You heard me."

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"No I did _not_."

"Is that right?"

"That's _right_."

"This is go-." Aimee tried to say before her sister, but another voice came out.

"GO TO BED GIRLS!" A loud shout came from their parents' room. It was quiet for a moment and then Brooke and Aimee began to laugh. Aimee got her things and scraps and finally left her sister's room. Once the door was closed Brooke stood up and walked over to her bed. She placed Kura on the edge. She pulled off her clothes and put on her yellow pajamas. The flannel pants were a little big, they had once belonged to Aimee, but Brooke liked them that way. She went up the one step and flopped on her bed. It felt so good compared to the hard wood floor. She couldn't wait to get her carpet the next day. Brooke sat up and pulled down her covers. She laid down Kura next to her and pulled the covers back up. She lay there for another hour, turning the light off with a switch next to her bed. Brooke just thought about how Kura was going to be so good at Angelic Layer and they would have no problem beating everyone who they fought. They would be as good as Misaki and Hikaru, even better. They would beat them, they would win. With a comforting thought, Brooke's eyes slowly closed and she finally fell asleep.

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Brooke groaned as her alarm clock went off. The bad thing about it was it was on her desk because there was no room for it by her bed. So it kept ringing until Brooke got up and crossed the floor to get to it. But it also helped because it meant Brooke couldn't go back to sleep like she usually did.

She tried to smother the annoying sound with her pillow but it didn't help much. She flipped over on her stomach and pushed the pillow down harder. She groaned and kicked her legs slightly. Brooke was not usually a morning person. Suddenly the ringing stopped and Brooke was hit with a pillow on her back..

"Hey!" Brooke said to the offender, who was Aimee. She was already dressed and sitting near the edge of Brooke's bed.

"Come on and get up. Mom wants us to be gone by the time the men come." She took Brooke's hand and pulled her up. Brooke leaned back and got Kura. Aimee went into the bathroom to wash her face while Brooke got dressed. She threw on some jeans and a gray shirt with the words "I'm a monkey." on it. Her friend from her old school, named Becky had given it to her. Brooke and Becky were like monkeys, literally. At Girls' camp, nothing to do with Girl Scouts, they could climb from the top bunks into the rafters and actually moved around. And Brooke could walk around with Becky on her shoulders with no problem at all. Brooke called Becky 'Monkey' and Becky called Brooke 'Chimpy'.

Aimee came from the bathroom and braided Brooke's hair like Kura's somewhat, only without the top layer. Brooke took her pink fuzzy purse and headed out with her sister. They waved goodbye to their family and got into the Saturn, which had been shipped over. It was cleaned out better and no longer smelled like French fries. As they began to drive away Brooke looked at her house's position. It was on the hill, about halfway somewhat, with one curving road leading up to other houses. There weren't too many other houses and soft grass covered the whole hill.

They neared the bottom of the hill and pulled to the right. They continued to drive straight for a while before turning to the left. Brooke looked at Kura who was resting peacefully in her hands. A couple minutes and they were in the edges of Tokyo. A couple more turns and they were at Piffle Princess. Aimee was lucky enough to pull into a parking place close to the door. Brooke opened the door and pushed down the lock, because the car was so old that the locks were not automatic. Brooke waited for Aimee and they entered together. Near a door on the side was a booth with a sign above it saying "Training". They walked over to it. A girl about Aimee's age looked up and closed her magazine.

"Are you registered?" She asked in Japanese. Brooke remembered she had to speak Japanese now. They still spoke English at home and it had made Brooke forget all about it.

"No." Aimee said in the silence. The girl turned an extra computer monitor around and pressed a button on her own.

Brooke walked up to it and looked at what it said. It just asked a bunch of information about the angel and its serial number.

"Serial number?" Brooke asked the girl.

"Just hold your angel up to the scanner." She replied. Brooke held her angel up and the girl pressed another button. A light moved up over her angel and a completed sign came up on the computer screen.

"Kura-chan. Cool." The girl said. As Aimee registered Hirobi, Brooke looked at her nametag, which said Saki.

"Okay, Kura-chan and Hirobi-chan," Saki said after Aimee was done. "Do you want a private or public room. Private it one layer with a trainer. Public is many layers, and you can choose if you want a trainer or not."

"What can we get Aimee?" Brooke asked her sister.

"We can't get a private room, that's too much. But we can go in the public room with a trainer. Yeah, well take that. Four hours worth." She told Saki. She took out some yen and gave it to her. Saki gave her a key and called someone. A boy came from the door and asked the girls to follow him. He led them through the door, which led into a huge passageway. Many doors were along the wall, and they stopped at number twenty-three. The boy asked for the key and Aimee gave it to him. He opened the door and took them inside.

Three large layers were in there and a bunch of egg shaped chairs. He took them to a pair of them and told them someone would be with them in a minute. He left and Brooke and Aimee waited. A minute had hardly passed before a boy came over to them and sat down next to Aimee. He had black curly hair with blonde highlights on his bangs. He was very cute and Brooke thought so, she could even see Aimee was a little nervous.

"Hello, my name's Conan. I'm an exchange from Scotland." He said in a calm voice.

"Really, we're from London. Well I was born here and then we moved to London and then Brooke and my little brother Cobey were born there. They have a good English heritage. We moved back here a couple days ago." Aimee said in a hurry.

"Aah, I see. So you still speak English?" He asked.

"Yup." Brooke said in her native language. It felt better to speak it, and have someone understand.

"Okay then, we can talk in that now. Have you ever played before, I'm guessing you haven't seeing as you just moved right?" Conan asked. Brooke and Aimee nodded yes.

"The first thing you want to do is put on those headsets in front of you." He instructed. Brooke eagerly took the headset and put it on her head., it was big for her. Conan went over to her and helped her adjust it. Brooke blushed slightly and felt silly.

"Brooke." Aimee said softly as Conan went back to his seat. Brooke stuck her tongue out at her sister and Aimee stuck hers out before Conan noticed what they were doing.

"All right, put your angels in the layer now." Brooke placed Kura into the layer and her eyes flew open. The blue eyes stared at her and Brooke felt wonderful. She looked at Hirobi who had pale gray eyes. She was about an inch taller than Kura and seemed a little bit more bulky.

"Turn on your headset now. There should be a little button on the left side." Conan said. Brooke's fingers scratched the side of the headset and finally found a little switch, she flipped it up. The screen turned on and Brooke could see Kura's stats and other things.

"I can move now." A voice came out from the layer. Brooke gasped and looked down at Kura who had just spoken.

"She can talk!" She said excitingly.

"Uh Brooke. That's what the voice chip is for." Aimee told her.

"Oh, yeah." She said embarrassed. She thought of Kura's voice and it sounded pretty much like the voice on the box, except it was just a tiny bit more childlike.

"You can move her now. Try walking first." Conan said, as if this was all normal to him, which it probably was. Brooke nodded and concentrated on Kura moving. She shakily took a couple steps, and found it much harder to move than she thought. She concentrated hard on moving and her pace became more steady and a little bit faster. Kura got to the middle of the center and then edge when she spoke again.

"Hey stop me!" She said turning her head back. In that split second another angel covered in purple slammed right into her. She tumbled around on the ground and Brooke slowly got her up. A boy about Brooke's age came running over to them.

"I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to hit your angel. My opponent threw me right into her." He said nodding over to a girl sitting in the corner who was watching them.

"It's okay." Brooke said looking at Kura's stats. "There's hardly any damage done and it looks like nothing is harmed. Don't worry about it." She said to him, who looked much more relieved.

"Who's the girl he's facing?" Brooke asked after he left.

"That's Aya-san, the manager's daughter. She's really good." Conan answered her. Brooke didn't say anything, but turned her attention back to Kura who was waiting for her. She moved her back to her, and tried to make her run. She jogged a little then fell down. Brooke began to laugh and so did Kura.

"Why'd she do that?" She asked again.

"The angel cord. It can connect your thoughts and feelings to your angel. If your mad, she'll most likely be mad. If you feel strong, she'll feel strong. It's a way to make you closer to your angel." Conan replied smiling.

"That's really cool." Aimee said. Brooke, who hadn't really been paying attention to her, saw Hirobi was shakily skating around. As she fell the tray kept falling out of hand. She fell again and Kura brought it back to her. Then she helped Hirobi back up.

"How are you going to skate during a different layer battle?" Conan asked this time.

"The skate wheels can retract. Guess I should learn to walk first." She closed her eyes and the wheels clicked into the bottom of the skate and turned into regular shoes. Kura flipped her racket and tried to jog again. She knew it must looked weird having her angel run around in circles, but it was her best. Brooke saw the wing's feathers moving slightly. She turned to Conan.

"Can I try to fly?" she asked. Conan looked surprised.

"Already, you just learned to walk and can't even run properly run yet. How in the world-." He stopped as Aimee put her finger to her lips, signaling for him to stop talking.

"She's very determined. If she wants to try something there is no stopping her. Believe me it can get annoying." She finished.

"I'm right here you know." Brooke said folding her arms.

"All the better."

"That's rude."

"Good."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Okay we are not starting that again."

"Yeah we better not." Aimee laughed. Conan looked confused, but didn't say anything. He seemed to be enjoying this.

"Well, if your sister says so you can try. Just don't expect to get too high up." He told her breaking the silence.

"Thanks." Brooke said happily. Focusing back To Kura she tried with all her strength to get her up in the air. The tips of the wings moved a little bit and Brooke tried harder. The wings slowly began to move fully back and forth, but didn't take Kura off the ground. Brooke sighed and the wings moved faster. Kura's heels rose off the layer and Brooke got excited. She imagined Kura rising to the top of the layer and flying at fast speeds. She watched hopefully as the rest of Kura's feet left the layer. Slowly Kura began to rise higher and higher.

"Come one, you can do it!" Kura said to her. Brooke hadn't expected that and got surprised again. Her concentration slipped and she forgot to hold Kura up. The wings stopped beating the air and Kura fell down.

"Ow!" She said as she landed on her back..

"What was that? I just gave you a compliment!" she said, with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She sat up and looked at her Deus.

"Hey." Brooke said with the same tone of voice.

"Remember she's feeling what you feel. Try it again. That was actually pretty good." Conan told her eagerly.

"Okay." Brooke said doubtfully.

"Don't worry. You can do it Brooke." Aimee said to encourage her. Brooke breathed and stood Kura up again. The wings beat faster this time and soon Kura was where she was before. Brooke closed her eyes and imagined Kura rising higher and she rose an inch higher.

"That's good Brooke." Conan said excitingly. It was obvious that he hadn't expected for her to get this high. Brooke opened her eyes and concentrated on her angel. Brooke wouldn't budge and kept staring at Kura. She rose another inch up and Brooke was getting more excited. As she steadily rose higher Kura got a look of excitement on her face. She seemed to be holding back speaking, so she wouldn't be dropped again.

"Try getting her parallel to the ground and moving her." Conan said.

"You're not serious?" Brooke said letting her grasp slip. But as she heard Kura's sudden cry she caught her and put her back up where she was before. Kura let out a sigh and looked relieved.

"Try it. You were so determined before." Aimee said. Brooke sighed and tried hard to her Kura parallel. She slowly became diagonal and then within a minute was parallel to the ground.

"This is so fun." Kura said happily. As she heard that Brooke felt better. She was having fun, and that made everything good. She pushed the wings harder and Kura moved slowly around the layer. As she came to the edge Brooke almost flew her out, but stopped her in time. Kura finally made it back to the group and had a huge smile on her face.

"Do you want to try more?" Conan asked.

"No, that's enough. I need to put her down now or I'll drop her again." Brooke said tired.

"Then by all means put me down!" Kura said loudly.

"Right, right." Brooke replied and Kura slowly floated down to the ground. Her feet touched on the glowing layer and she stood again.

"Yes! That was so cool, can we do it again soon, even if it was slow?" Kura asked. Brooke laughed nervously.

"Maybe next time. That made me really tired."

"Oh." Kura said disappointed. Conan checked his watch.

"You have another three hours."

"What? It's been that long already?" Aimee said. She instantly turned back to Hirobi who was sitting on the layer looking quite bored. Hirobi stood up and brushed herself off.

"Thank you." She said. Her voice was much like Conan's except it was female. It was very calm and sweet sounding, but not soft. She walked around and then tried to run.

Brooke went back to Kura. She found now that running was easier after flying some. She was faster and didn't fall or wobble. For fun Kura chased Hirobi.

"Hey!" Hirobi said.

"Oh come one, have some fun." Kura said jumping up slightly. She landed back down and continued to chase Hirobi who was running better. Aimee tried the skates again and began to get good with them and lost Kura. Kura smiled and did a cartwheel, but fell.

"Wai!" She yelled as she went down. Her head rolled a bit like she was dizzy and she laughed once more. She stood back up and then ran in front of Hirobi.

"Watch out!" She screamed. But Kura moved behind her and picked her up under her arms. Brooke was trying out her wings again and had picked Hirobi up. She flew round faster than before and much more smoothly.

"I thought you said I wasn't going to fly again." Kura questioned. Brooke shrugged.

"I know. But if I don't practice we'll never get good. Then it will be harder to win our battles." Brooke replied.

"Brooke. You're having a conversation with a machine. She's not real." Aimee whispered to her sister. Her eyes darted back to Conan who was watching the two angels fly around.

"So, she's real to me. Plus you used to talk to that thing all the time." She retorted.

"That was only for laughs." Aimee said defensively.

"Sure it was." Brooke said.

"You!" Aimee said laughing. She took Brooke's arm and shook her a little.

"Watch it, you don't want to make me drop Hirobi or Kura." Brooke said suddenly. The two angels had gone down a couple inches and Kura was wobbling. As Aimee let go they went smooth again and higher.

Once Brooke got tired again she put Hirobi down and finally began to use her racket. She worked on hitting the ball and getting it. Another hour ticked by. Then Kura got out of the way as Hirobi practiced using her bopping head weapon/discus. The silver tray went out far and came back to Hirobi like a Frisbee.

"Cool weapon." Brooke said as she watched the bit of silver fly. Another half hour went by when Brooke felt a shadow come over her. She turned around and saw Aya standing over her.

"Um, hello." She said in Japanese.

"Hello. I saw you practicing, you are good for a beginner."

"Thanks." Hirobi caught her tray again and sat down. Aimee turned around to face the two along with Conan. Aya ignored them.

"Do you want to battle?" She asked.

"What?" Brooke asked, surprised.

"Aya-san, be reasonable. She just started. Even if she can fly she's no match for you yet." Conan said, speaking up.

"Shush. I want her to answer me." She said. Conan fell silent and kept his mouth shut tightly closed. Brooke didn't know what to say. Aya was the same age as her and had shiny short black hair. She had green eyes and was taller than Brooke. She didn't give off a cold feeling, but a powerful one.

"I-." she began.

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**A/N: Mwahhaha! Cliff hanger, got to love them. _Very _long chapter, 17 pages on word. The second half took me over two hours to write and now my back is killing me. The next chapter won't be so long. Sorry if it's hard to read because of the length, but my goal is to write at least a 14 page long chapter every story. This is the first one I've done so far. Kanna's Angel will be the next one. The part about Becky and Brooke is true for one of my friends and me, except my name is Kelsey. And the shirt doesn't exist, not of my knowledge, and Becky lives in Perry and doesn't go to my school. But that's the only difference. (Kind of a big difference) Anyway, till next time!**


	5. Of Battles and Uniforms

**A/N: Hello again. I've noticed that I haven't been putting up disclaimers, so I think I'll do it now. But then again, who REALLY TRULY cares? Hmm, give me a chapter to think about it.**

**DayDreamer9 said it was kind of hard to imagine what Kura and Hirobi look like. Kura is basically in a tennis uniform and has long blue hair. Hirobi wears a black and white waitress uniform, has skates, and long black hair. That's basically it, I find I always have a hard time describing the angel and just make it confusing. Hope this clears it up.**

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"I-." she began.

"Yes?" Aya, looking at Brooke with her sharp eyes. Brooke thought about it hard. Conan was right, she had just started and wouldn't be strong enough to beat her even if she could fly. But Brooke never back down from a challenge. Then again, if Kura got hurt and had damage to pay a lot of money for, her mom wouldn't be happy with her. She didn't have a clue as to what to do.

"Are we going to do it or not?" Kura asked from the layer. Brooke turned around and saw her sitting on the edge of the layer, sitting cross-legged, and waiting expectantly for her deus's answer.

"Um." She glanced back at her angel who was staring at her, smiling like nothing else. Brooke could tell from that look that she wanted to fight. And just last night hadn't she told herself how good she was going to be? How she was going to win every battle and be the best Angelic Layer Deus ever? How could she do that if she couldn't even accept one single battle? She took one last glance at Kura and made up her mind.

"I'll fight you." Brooke said confidently. Aya looked happy and began to walk away. Brooke watched as she made her way to the other side of the layer and sat down. Brooke watched nervously as she put on the headset and turned it on. Finally she placed her angel in the layer.

Aya's angel was like a mini dragon. She had a pale olive skin tone with a slight hint of green hidden in it. She was the same height as Hirobi, but slimmer. She was wearing a V-cut tube top that was tight and was made of a scaly material, much like a dragon's. Made of the same material, she had on knee shorts. Around her ankles were dragon skin ankle bracelets that were tight like the top. And around each ankle was three gold bracelets, the same around her wrists. She wore green gloves that had long talon on each of the knuckles.

In addition to that she also had a dragon's tail and ears. Under her bright green eyes she had triangles made from war paint. Her hair went below her ears and was a dark green, almost black. As hard as she looked she couldn't find the angel cord.

"Where's her angel cord?" Brooke asked out.

"Her name is Shizuko-chan, and her tail is her angel cord. It's a special order, see the gold tip at the end? That's the only difference from a real tail." Shizuko's tail swayed and Brooke saw the triangle a the end was indeed gold, like the ends of her angel cord.

"Now that you're done staring at my angel can we start?" Aya asked folding her arms impatiently.

"Oh, um sure." Brooke replied nervously. Kura stood up and turned around to face her opponent.

"Conan-kun!" She barked.

"Yes Ma'am." He said suddenly, his lips unlocking.

"Start the battle simulator."

"Right away." He bent over some and opened a hatch on the side of the layer. He pressed a few buttons and then closed the hatch back up. The ground shook as the layer changed. The white tabletop was now a flat grassy land area, and then half of it was water.

"Wow! I thought only the tournament layers changed." Aimee said amazed. Aya nodded.

"They do. But since daddy's the manager he got me this one as gift. Of course it's not as big, but it's just as good." Brooke stiffened up as she looked at the new layer. She thought it would be just a regular one, not a different one. She looked up and saw Aya looking at the layer also.

"Good, the randomizer picked the changing layer. This will make it much more fun." Conan gasped and shook his head.

"Changing layer? I'm guessing that's bad right?" Brooke said, leaning over so she could see Conan past her sister.

"For you anyway. Every couple minutes or so the layer will abruptly change into a different one. There's no telling what it could be so be on your guard. Just watch out for the sand-."

"Conan-kun! What did I say to you about talking? Don't say anything else or I'll tell Dad." Conan winced and kept his mouth tightly closed again. Brooke was beginning to not like this Aya at all. Maybe she was wrong about the feeling she had before. Maybe it was a cold feeling not a powerful one, or it could be both. She shuttered at the thought. Three buzzes went off and then a timer started.

"Angelic Fight!" A computerized voice rang out. Aya didn't waist anytime attacking. As soon as Kura took a few steps forward Shizuko, she was already right in front of her. Her arm pulled back and hit Kura right in the face. She went flying far, almost out of the layer. Kura's fingers desperately grasped the grass, but it ripped out of the roots in an instant. Brooke recovered Kura as fast she could, but Shizuko was charging again. Thinking of only one thing Kura flew up into the air, and as high as possible. Shizuko skidded to a stop and looked up at Kura.

"Can't get me now, can ya?" she yelled teasingly. Shizuko's face bent into an evil smile and laughed.

"That's what you think." She said. Her voice was low, dark, and was evilish sounding. Brooke wasn't liking this angel as much as her owner. Shizuko's eyes closed and suddenly huge green dragon wings sprouted out of her back. Kura's face went into a very shocked and worried one.

"Ooh, bad." She gasped. Shizuko rose into the air like a bullet. Kura flew as fast as she could away. She glanced over her shoulder to see how close Shizuko was. She didn't see her so she stopped, but continued looking over her shoulder just in case.

"Looking for me?" Shizuko said. Kura slowly turned her head and found Shizuko staring her right in the face.

"Aah!" Kura gritted as she barely avoided another one of Shizuko's punches. She flew under her in hopes of getting an attack, but to no avail. Shizuko swung her right leg down and kicked Kura right in the stomach. Kura went down, but caught herself almost a couple inches of the ground. She gripped her hand tight only to find she didn't have her racket.

"Where did it go?" She said in panic. She flew back up. Her head turned frantically in every direction, looking for it. She gripped her fists tightly and held them up to her face so she would be ready just in case Shizuko tried to attack.

"Looking for this?" Shizuko said, spontaneously appearing in front of her. She held it by the handle, moving it back and forth.

"Hey! Give it!" Kura yelled, making a mad and desperate grab for it. Shizuko groaned and grabbed her by the hair, she twirled around fast and finally released her. Kura tumbled through the air, when she stopped herself she rubbed her neck vigorously.

"You better not tell me what to do, or you'll get it a lot worse than that." She threatened. She dropped the racket and Kura went after it. She caught it a foot from the ground. She took a good grip on it and searched for Shizuko. She felt an instant pain in her head as Shizuko grabbed her hair

"Let me go!" Kura yelled out. She took Shizuko's arms and to Shizuko's surprise pulled her in front of her. Kura jammed her head with her elbow. Then by her arm she turned her around as she had done and sent her plummeting towards the ground. She landed with a loud thump on the ground and didn't move.

"Yes! That's very good!" Kura yelled happily. She laughed and flipped her racket.

"Yes. I suppose it would be if that was actually me." A voice said from behind her. Kura froze and in that second was sent into the chilly waters below her. Brooke gasped as her vision went from one of the whole layer to just Kura's. She could only see a sliver through her barely open eyes and the dense water. Kura was sinking slowly and could barely move. Her starts were lowering fast, and they only were getting lower. As hard as she tried, she couldn't get Kura to move like she had before. It was like being submerged in tar. Her fingers twitched as Brooke thought as hard as she could, but nothing helped, and Brooke was getting more anxious. If this kept up Kura would be down in no time. And she was almost down already, she had almost no power stats left and she was beginning to sink even faster.

"No way. What's wrong? Why can't she move!" Brooke cried out in desperation. She watched in horror as they power stats went from three, then two, one. Brooke winced and closed her eyes.

"Brooke! Look!" Aimee told her pale little sister. Brooke slowly opened her eyes, scared of what she would see. Her eyes grew wide as she found that the layer had changed and Kura was back on land again. She was sitting near the edge, and Brooke had a hard time seeing her. It was a desert terrain. A violent sandstorm was raging, and with its winds, it was surprising that Kura wasn't already knocked out of the layer. A shadow came through the sand and Kura tried to stand up but it was useless, and she was soaking wet. Her wings were drenched and were useless flopped down at Kura's sides. The shadow became Shizuko. Kura's eyes sparked anger, but not being able to move she couldn't do anything. Then to her surprise Shizuko went behind her and fiddled with her hair.

"What?" Brooke asked.

"I'm guessing that Shizuko-chan's clone messed with your angel cord while she was pulling on your angel's hair. It's my fault so I'm fixing it." Aya replied.

"Oh. Alright." The dragon angel tied the blue cord like it was before and Kura was able to move like before again.

"Although this won't change anything. To make up for my mistake I'll hide somewhere and stand still till you find me. I think that seems a lot better than just kicking you out here." Aya said, Shizuko suddenly disappearing into the sandstorm. Brooke didn't even have a chance to tell her not to go easy on her. But she did feel a little relief, with Kura's only one power stat.

She stood up, and for the first time, felt the full impact. It took everything just to keep Kura upright, and Shizuko walked like there was no wind at all. Maybe she should have waited before challenging someone as powerful as her, but it was way too late to change her mind. As best as she could, Kura shook her wings to get the water off. They were drying quickly with the wind helping, but grains of sand were slowly getting caught in the feathers and were weighing them down. Then without a plan Kura ran into the layer even more.

Once again the vision switched from the full layer to just Kura's vision. It was nearly impossible to see, and even harder to move. She thought she saw Shizuko a couple times, but when she went to see nothing was there. A slow minute went by before she was finally found. Kura came up to her and saw the angel standing stiff like a soldier, with her arms down at her side and her head bowed and eyes closed.

"Hello! I found you, you can move now!" Kura yelled over the roar of the storm. When Shizuko didn't respond she pushed her by the forehead, but still no movement was made. Kura pushed her again and she fell backwards. Then as soon as she hit the ground she disappeared.

"Another clone!" she yelled out. Before she knew what was happening the real Shizuko crept up on her and banged her in the head. The single power stat dropped and Kura fell over, the losing angel. The wind stopped and the layer changed back to normal. The computer voice rang out again.

"Battle over. Winner Angel Shizuko and Deus Aya Uotoni. Loser Angel Kura and Deus Brooke Miyoko."

"Does it have to say the losers name?" Brooke asked, annoyed.

"Yes." Aya said half-joking.

"Oh happy sugar cookies." Brooke replied dully. Kura robotically stood up and walked over to the edge of the layer near her owner, before closing her eyes and crumpling down again. Shizuko was already in Aya's hand, and then Aya walked over to the trio. Brooke took Kura out of the layer and set her down in her lap.

"Nice job for your first try. Don't get too down about losing. I've just been doing this for years." She reached out for Brooke's hand and Brooke shook it. She felt something slide into it. Brooke looked up at Aya, who winked back..

"Well, goodbye." She said, quickly leaving the room. Brooke waited till after the door was closed before she looked at the object in her hand. It was a card, sort of like a credit card, but it looked different. Conan caught sight of it and looked very surprised.

"That's a raw angel card!" He said suddenly.

"You mean that card thing we read about on the Internet? I thought we only got that after we won a local tournament." Brooke asked surprised.

"You're supposed to. And a raw card at that. You have to give it to Saki outside to get it modified to you and Kura's information. But they weird thing is why'd she give it to you. It has to be on a official Angelic Layer layer, under the presence of an official judge. Then you have to win, unless the judge sees something otherwise. How many does she have of those?" he asked.

"Well, this is a regulated Angelic Layer layer. That's one. We don't have an official judge and she didn't win, so why did she-?" suddenly Conan interrupted her.

"Wait a minute. I remember Aya-san got an official judge license a year ago. It should still be good. But the winning thing. Unless, something otherwise. She must have been thinking about how she messed up your cord. Bet she thought that if she hadn't have made that mistake it would have come out differently. That's all of them. So that's why she gave it to you. I don't think she counted it as a tournament, but I guess this saves you the trouble." He finished.

"Goodie for you Brooke. But that means I still have to compete in one." Aimee said, her voice full of jealousy.

"Nope." Brooke said. She smiled and moved something from underneath her card. It was another angel card! This one was pink.

"I love that girl." Aimee said, taking the card and smiling.

Conan's watch beeped.

"You're time is up." He told them. He pushed his chair back and stood up.

"Wait. What do I do with Kura?" Conan reached out his hands.

"Give her to me." Brooke watched as he took Kura to a station in the corner. He put her in another scanner and pressed a few buttons. He waited a minute before taking her out and coming back. He finally handed her to Brooke.

"There you go. Now she's back to perfect." Conan told her. He walked back through the hallway with them and left them at the door.

"Don't forget to give your cards to Saki-chan. I'll see you around." He gave them a smile and a waved and then closed the door as they stepped out. The two took their cards back to Saki.

"Um, here. We got these?" Brooke said slowly, asking "What do we do with them?"

"So Aya-chan gave these out again? That girl has a generous heart." She took the two cards and got the girl's address. "These will be back to you in about three days. You know about the points and all?" she asked.

"Yeah, we know. Thanks." Aimee said, handing her the key Brooke had forgotten all about. She walked towards the door, but Aimee stopped her.

"Hang on. Watching you today I've decided to get some wings. I have some money left over." Brooke waited out of the way for a minute while she watched her sister go through the wings and then pay for them. They were wings, slightly smaller than Kura's. They also had the wings tipped black, instead of full white, and the feathers weren't as fluffy.

"Perfect." Brooke said, holding the door open. They piled back into the car, Brooke holding Hirobi while Aimee drove. She watched the scenery pass like she did so many months ago back in England. She would see if any of her friends were the Internet so she could talk to them. Or maybe just e-mail them at least.

They turned onto their road and went up, weaving back and forth on the curvy parts. Aimee pulled into their driveway. Brooke gave Hirobi back to Aimee and ran up to the door. She normally opened up the door, and almost ended up knocking into a worker.

"Sah, sor-." She tried to say.

"Watch it! You snot-nose kids are getting worse every year. I just can't _believe_ it." Brooke couldn't believehow rude this man was. She wanted more than anything to kick him as hard as she could, but her mom was close by.

"Oh yeah, well I can't believe how stupid and rude fat adults are to innocent people who just opened a door!" She said angrily in English so the man wouldn't understand her.

"Can't even speak right. Stupid kids. What is it, some kind of top secret code?" he said, teasing her.

"It's English!" Brooke said defensively, in Japanese this time.

"She can talk! And English? Is that right Guv'ner? Isn't it tea-time?" he said, laughing in her face. Brooke was furious, her arm was pulled back, ready to hurt this man. But what stopped her was a hand placed on her shoulder. She looked up to see her dad, his face slightly mad also.

"What do you think you're doing? Get back to work before you don't work at all, in this house or country." he said angrily. The man glared at Brooke's dad and stepped backwards before turning away and disappearing into another room.

"Sorry about that. You alright Brooke?" he asked, his tone softer.

"Yeah I'm fine. But I wanted to, and still want, to hurt him bad." She said, looking at the point where he had vanished.

"So do I." Aimee said from behind her dad. " I was just about to step in when dad came home. What's his problem anyway?" The three of them stepped into the house, where Brooke saw a few other worker men scattered around the house.

"Not sure. But he's probably had a bad life to make him so rude like that." Mr. Miyoko said, taking off his shoes, the girls following his lead.

"He's a bad egg." Brooke said after their dad had gone to talk to their mom.

"I'm sure that's true to some extent." Aimee agreed. "Want to go see what's going on with our rooms?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sure." Brooke said, happier. They ran up the stairs where they found Cobey waiting by his door. Once he saw them he smiled.

"Brooke!" he said running up to her.

"Hi Cobey."

"C'mon Cobey. Let's go inside and see my new room.

"New Room! New Room! New Room!" Cobey squealed as he followed Brooke into her room. She took the handle and slowly turned it. She gently pushed the door open and was amazed at what she saw. Her carpet had already been installed and her walls painted. She stood outside for a second before stepping in. As soon as she felt the carpet underneath her feet, she fell in love with it. It had the softness of a favorite blanket, baby chick's fur, a teddy bear, or anything else soft and fuzzy.

The room was painted a sky blue and a dark blue. The top half was the lighter blue, and the bottom darker blue. The bottom half was swirled and decorated like an ocean. She walked in a little further and found her old pink and white desk replaced with a light solid oak desk. She quickly turned her head and saw her bed had a new heading made out of the same oak. Her wood closet was painted white with different shades of blue, and black paint around the perimeter. Other than that her room was mostly the same, her blue curtains were still up and her drawings were placed neatly on top of her desk.

Aimee came over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Pretty good. Want to go check mine out now?" she asked.

"Sure. I don't see why not Artie."

"What!"

"Nothing."

"Don't call me that."

"Right." Brooke agreed.

"I mean it!"

"I agree with you." Brooke said defensively.

"I'm just messing with you." Aimee said laughing.

"You're one of the cruelest people I know. You hog the bathroom, never knock before coming in, leave me with all the dishes, forget to pick me up from school, _accidentally_ lost that necklace I lent you, and of all things-." she stopped suddenly

as she spied the rude man at the bottom of the staircase carrying a box. His head turned to face her, his eyes grew angry. Brooke stuck her tongue out at him, he stuck his out back.

"Come on you wonderful little sister." Aimee said, grabbing Brooke by the elbow. She pulled her into her room. Like Brooke's the carpet and wall had already been painted. The wall was painted a light green, with tiny hints of darker green here and there. The pink blossom header Aimee had chosen was perfectly applied also. The floor also had a carpet identical to Brooke's except it was pink. Aimee's bed had two packages on it. The girls went over to inspect it. Aimee picked up the one addressed to her and opened it.

It contained a small box of slightly stale doughnuts along with some letters and another wrapped present. The letter's contained notes from friends and some of the work staff from Aimee's old job. One had a picture of the staff in it and then her last paycheck.. The final letter read:

_Dear Aimee,_

_We hope you enjoy the treats we sent along, sorry if they are a little stale. Flying doughnuts from England to Japan is a long time for them to be out. Everyone here misses you and it's hard not to have our best worker around anymore. Melissa talked to one of your friends and we all chipped in a bought a present for you. Hope you like it,_

_Manager Thompson_

Aimee unwrapped the present. It was a necklace with a koala, Aimee's favorite animal, sitting in the middle of a doughnut eating ice cream. On the back of the doughnut it read "Customized Jewelry © all rights reserved"

"It's hilarious." Aimee said, putting it on. She sighed a long one before looking at the letters then at Brooke.

"Go ahead and open yours now." So Brooke did. It was smaller than Aimee's and didn't have a wrapped present, but a teddy bear wearing a camouflage dress, along with matching hat and purse.

"It's adorable, Kitty must've picked it out. The girl loves Camo." She then picked up a long letter and read it.

_Hey Brooke,_

_Just wanted to let you know we all miss you and can't wait to see you when you visit. Nothing much has happened since you left, except Rita finally told Mitch she liked him and then they started to go out. To bad your missing it she says. By gosh this letter sounds dumb. If you ever feel down look at this list of all the people who miss you_

_Becky "Money" McDomino_

_Kitty Arnold_

_Umi Chu_

_Rita Donaldson_

_Aliah Ferguson_

_Sarah Paradise_

_Mrs. Donaldson_

_Mrs. Parker_

_Mitch Bulzan (Rita's boyfriend Ha Ha!)_

_Jeesh why am I going on like this?_

_I can't stop writing or I have to do dishes_

_Let me think of more people_

_Umi C- no wait she's number 3_

_What about Nikki Kovasik_

_Yeah! There's someone else_

_Um who else? Urrgh I hate dishes_

_Dang…………………………. Bob Smith_

_No seriously, he was in English member_

_Course you do_

_Hey I just realized I spelled Money instead of Monkey in my name_

_Go figure, and I get an A in spelling_

_Concentrate Becky, who else?_

_Umi C- NOOO_

_She's number 3and 13, now number 23 and 24_

_When did she get so popular?_

_If you've read this far I congratulate you_

_Please wait the next few numbers while I think_

……………………………

……………………………

……………………………

……………………………

……………………………

………………_..hi…………._

……………………

………………………

…………………………

……………………………

……_..no really……hi………._

………………………………

……………………………_OH!_

_Alexa Pierson!_

_Oh yeah go Becky, _

_You thought without hurting yourself!_

_Too much_

_Back to the task_

……………_..more dots……………._

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……………………………………

……………………………………

……………………………………

…_..Me, on no wait…………….._

…………………………………

…………_. …_

_Eva Heintz!_

_Daniel Sony_

_Taylor-O_

_Ya know her, C'mon_

_Taylor Obranavich, from S.S._

_S.S means Social Studies in case you didn't know._

_I think I'm a nut case_

_Don't you agree_

_I think it's safe to stop now_

_All the dishes are done_

_If read all this way send something back_

………………………

………………………

_Enjoy the bear!_

"My gosh Becky." Brooke laughed.

"How long was her list this time? 36 or 42?"

"67."

"Wow that's a new record."

"That girl kills me." Brooke put down the letter and then put all of her stuff in a pile. She picked it up and began to leave. She stopped before she reached the door.

"Hey Aimee?"

"Hmm?"

"While you were getting wings I picked up a pamphlet for some local matches this week. Do you want to go? There'll be extra layers to practice on and I- WE can find some easier people to battle."

"You need a ride don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Guess I don't have a choice then. Sure I'll take you. When's it at?"

"Three days from now and its on Fox Rain Street. I think it's the one the school is on. I believe it's on the lawn."

"Okay. We'll go when our angel cards come in."

"Cool! And if we want I guess we could also go back to practice before. That way we have a better chance to win."

"OUT Brooke."

"Seriously we could practice more."

"I'm not your chauffeur. OUT."

"Right." Brooke said before shutting the door behind her as she left Aimee's room. After putting her things on her bed she went back downstairs to find all of the worker's gone.

"We can handle the rest, just a couple more boxes to unpack. Those paints near your closet Brooke? You can decorate it yourself. And also because of the new paint you and Aimee have to sleep in the living room for a day or two till the smell and toxins clear out." Her mom explained. She then gave Brooke an apple and pushed her out of the kitchen.

"Go take a bath or a shower before you help me." Brooke didn't argue, but left and quickly devoured the apple. She realized she hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch, she and Aimee were in too much of a hurry to get to Piffle Princess. She climbed the stairs once more and entered her room. Brooke came in just in time to see Cobey opening a jar of paint next to her closet. Brooke dropped the apple core as she rushed over and snatched the paint out of Cobey's hands. She had totally forgotten he was still in her when she had left with Aimee.

"Don't touch." Brooke said sternly to him.

"Ai." Brooke assumed her was trying to say "Hai." Pretty good for a two- year-old. As she put the lid back on the paint and threw away the apple core she noticed a bunch of papers from her desk were thrown all over the ground.

"Cobey, did you do that."

"Goin-sai, Gimen-si, um no. Sorry?" he told her, mumbling over his words.

"It's okay." Brooke sighed. She picked up the papers and put them back n her desk.

"Okay Cobey, go play in your room." She told her little brother who had now walked over to her.

"It smells unny."

"They painted your room too? Then go play with Aimee."

"Locked." Maple suddenly bounded in the room, returning from her walk with Brooke's dad. She spotted Brooke and bounded over, jumping on her and knocking her over. It hurt with a long fall and a heavy dog on top of you. Maple was licking her face and gave Brooke a full breath of dog breath.

"UGH! Maple get OFF!" she pushed the large dog off of her. Maple backed off and Brooke pushed herself up. Strands of her hair were flying everywhere, her shirt was a bit muddy, and her face was covered in dog slobber. She loved Maple and Cobey but they needed to go. She grabbed Maple by the collar and Cobey by the hand. She led them out of her room and the locked the door behind them. She slid down the door and groaned.

"Brooke! Brooke! Brooke!" Cobey cried from outside the door. Brooke hung her head in frustration and annoyance. Luckily her dad came and took them both away. With the stress gone Brooke stood up and went into her bathroom. She ran the water nice and hot, she had to turn on the fan to keep the mirror from steaming. As she relaxed in the hot water she sat Kura down on the dry shelf of the tub. The first things she did was wash the dog slobber of her face. Brooke relaxed in the water for a long time before finally washing her hair and getting out. After drying herself off she put on a pair of clean clothes she had brought in with her. Finally she blow-dried her hair and put it in a ponytail.

Trudging back down the stairs she went into the kitchen to help her mom make an afternoon snack. Some Japanese rice balls and some of the Miyoko family's strawberry tarts. As Brooke put the whip cream on top of strawberries and then finished it off with a dash of cinnamon her mouth began to water. One apple wasn't exactly a three-course meal. When her mom finished putting the seaweed on the rice balls they took it out to the living room. Brooke's dad was entertaining Cobey and Maple was lying by his feet, taking a nap.

"Brooke get your sister will ya?" her mom asked.

"Kay." Brooke replied. When she got to Aimee's room she found the door was still locked.

"Aimee! We're having our snack downstairs. Rice balls and our strawberry tart!" Brooke told her through the door.

"Sleeping." A tiny reply came from inside.

"Alright then." Brooke replied softer this time. She went back downstairs and flopped onto the couch.

"Aimee's sleeping." She told her parent's.

"Well. It has been a tiring past couple of days. I feel tired myself, but I have to get back to work soon." Her dad said. He was watching Cobey carefully while he ate the rice ball. Cobey tended to make a big mess while eating.

"You have a crazy work schedule." Brooke told him.

"Just for a while. I still have to get settled in and get everything running smoothly." He took a long drink from his coffee and then stood up.

"I should actually be getting ready now." he then left.

"Oh yes Brooke. Your new school called and wants you and Aimee to do a fitting for your uniform. After that can you watch Cobey at the park while I take Aimee to look for another job?"

"Do I have to?"

"It would make life so much easier. Please?"

"Fine. How long?"

"Two hours."

"_Two_?"

"I'll pay you."

"Whatever. Anyway, do you know what the uniform looks like?"

"Nope."

"Uniforms, ugh." The conversation was cut short by Cobey putting his last rice ball on top of Maple's head.

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The car pulled up in front of the school and Brooke was able to see it for the first time. The middle school and high school were right next to each other. Behind the schools were the track and football field, along with a soccer and baseball field.

"The women said to meet in the principal's office in the High School. Room 351." The group walked inside the large building and found the principal's office using the signs. Through the small window Brooke could see three people inside. Two women and a man. Brooke's mom knocked and then they walked in. The three people stopped talking and one of them stood up.

"Pleasure to meet you. You must be Mrs. Miyoko. And this must be Aimee-chan." She said pointing to her, "and this one Brooke-chan." She pointed to her. She spotted Cobey.

"Who's this?" she asked.

"This is my son. Cobey, he's two." Mrs. Miyoko explained. The women shook her hand.

"I'm the principal of the High School. Mr. Hiroyuda behind me is the principal of the middle school. Mrs. Uotoni will fit you two into your uniforms. Oh! And I'm Ms. Shiroade." She then pushed them into a side room with a bunch of different clothes. Mrs. Uotoni followed them. Brooke thought she seemed to be pushy, but really cheerful.

"Hi there. The High school's colors are blue, light blue, and silver."

"Your favorite colors Brooke."

"Really? That's good then." Mrs. Uotoni said.

"The school mascot is the Artic Fox." She held up some clothes, " and this is the uniform." She showed it quickly and then set it down. She studied Aimee for a second and then handed her the uniform from a large stack of them. There was a little bathroom connected so Aimee went in there to change. When she came back out Mrs. Uotoni applauded. The uniform consisted of: a white school shirt, a light blue sweater with the fox on the right chest, a blue tie, blue knee-length pleated skirt, white socks that reached the middle of Aimee's calves, and black school-girl shoes..

"How's the fit?" Mrs. Uotoni asked.

"The skirt's a little big."

"Next size down then?" she handed Aimee a different skirt and she changed again. It fit perfectly. Mrs. Uotoni wrote down the numbers and gave Aimee her clothes back. While Aimee changed once more Mrs. Uotoni got a couple more uniforms and gave them to Aimee when she came back out. She put them in a bag for her and then it was Brooke's turn. Mrs. Uotoni handed her a pair of the uniform and Brooke entered the bathroom. She changed quickly and found the uniform to be a perfect, and cute, fit. She picked up her clothes and left the bathroom. Aimee smiled and Mrs. Uotoni clapped again.

"The fit?"

"Perfect." Brooke went back to change and when she came out Mrs. Uotoni had some uniforms in a bag and put the one in her arms in there also.

"In your bags I've also put some optional hair ribbons and headbands, along with a choker. In case you ever get your hair cut short the headband is then required. I think that's all." She led them back outside where their mom was waiting for them.

"All set?" Their mom asked. The girl's nodded and then they got their schedules and student passes.

"Your picture will be added later when your school pictures are taken." Mrs. Shiroade told them. They thanked her and then left. Brooke's mom dropped them off at the closest park near their house and then left with Aimee.

Brooke led Cobey over to the sandbox and sat on a nearby bench while he played. She sat her bag next to her and took Kura out. She had brought some sewing things with her and was making different suits for her. Not suits she would use it battle, clothes she would wear while she was out of the layer. Like a snowsuit for the winter, a bathing suit, a formal dress, casual clothes, along with holiday clothes. Brooke had already finished some casual clothes for Kura this morning. It was a pair of green capris with a white t-shirt and a brown crop jacket. She had a pair of brown sandals to wear and her hair would be left down. Kura was wearing it now and sitting between the bag and Brooke.

Brooke was now working on a Halloween costume. This year she would have Kura wear a witch costume. She had most of the robe done, she just had to finish sewing on the sleeves. It barely took her ten minutes. The robe was simple, just plain black so far. Then Brooke decided to decorate it. She took some gold and began to stitch designs on the robe. An hour ticked by before she was done. With the gold she had created different sizes of gold stars along the trimming of the robes. Between each star was a dotted gold trail.

She took a black dress she had taken off from her old doll, and sized it up against Kura. It was a simple black dress that was tight around the stomach, but loose around all other parts. Brooke changed Kura into it and tied a gold sash around her stomach, perfect. The black slippers she had bought was the second to last thing she had to do. She created some more stars and their trails around the opening of the shoe. It ate another hour and a half up.

Brooke's back began to hurt and wondered how long she would have to stay here. Cobey was now playing with some other kids on a slide. As she put the shoes on she saw a shadow cover her. She wondered if it was her mom. Brooke turned around. It was Aya Uotoni.

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**A/N: Wow………….that chapter was longer than my last one and I didn't even notice it. I just found that out and cut the chapter short. I was going to have a whole part with Brooke and Aya talking, but that will be the first thing to happen next chapter. **

**Two chapters in two days. The length is the reason it took so long to update. Add that with illness, family injuries, computer problems, and a vacation to Pittsburgh to visit my step dad's family. Then we have started to prepare for High School. I'm glad I'm finally getting out of Eighth grade and Middle School. Although I will miss my awesome Social Studies teacher, Mr. Heintz. He is the best, he's related to the guy who played the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz, and from someone who came off the Mayflower. He's rich also, or so he says. He's the best nutcase of a teacher. Anyway enough rambling about my omnipotent(ha, he wishes) Social Studies teacher.**

**And when you read Cobey's talk if you find letters missing, that's supposed to happen. It's how he talks, for some people who noticed that and were confused in anyway. That's all I have to say. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope to see what you say in your reviews.**


	6. My French Friend and Some Cool Matches

**A/N: Dreadfully, terribly sorry for the long wait-very long. I just loss my writing mojo- I guess you could call in that, or a slump would probably be better. It's just been like that since I put the last chapter. It's kind of going away now, but I still don't feel like writing. I do want to put up more chapters, but it has been so hard. But oh well. I'm going to write, and even as I'm typing now I feel some of it getting better. Maybe I just lost the fun of it for a while- who can ever really know the reason.**

**On a different note I'll try not to make this chapter so long. Some time will pass though. Not very much though, maybe a week or two. If you're wondering about Aya's true personality you'll just have to read this chapter. If you read the last chapter closely you can find out something about Aya, if you haven't already figured it out. The final thing is at the matches Brooke will find a new friend, a boy. To say this now they will never have anything serious together, even though I'm making him cute and so nice.**

**So enjoy My Tennis Angel chapter 6!**

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Brooke panicked and stood up even with Aya. Besides the fact that she was startled, she was also scared-remembering their battle. Even though people said she was generous and nice Brooke didn't know is she could believe them after the battle. But she did also give Brooke and Aimee the cards, so she couldn't be _that_ bad. Then Brooke realized she was staring, but Aya didn't seem to mind a bit.

"Oh, hey Aya-chan." her voice faltering, sitting back down on the bench focusing hard on the sandbox directly in front of her. She twisted the bottom of her shorts nervously as Aya sat down next to her.

"How you doing? Do you think its hotter today? I think so, but people keep saying that it's actually colder. What do you think?" Aya asked cheerfully. She sucked on an ice pop that Brooke hadn't seen.

"I think it could be the shirt you're wearing." Brooke replied softly. Aya was wearing a dark violet shirt that was thicker than normal.

"You know dark colors hold in heat, so you have that plus your own body heat and that's why you're warm." Brooke told her, seeing Aya's face was the tiniest bit red.

"I know."

"You _know_? Then why did you ask me? You could get overheated and get heatstroke or something."

"Nah." Aya smiling. She took off the sweater to reveal a white tank top, "I asked you because I wanted to see how perceptive you were. You did good, glad you noticed too. It was getting really hot." she took another slurp of her pop, trying to stop it from melting.

"It was pretty obvious y'know." Brooke replied, putting all of her sewing items back into her traveling sewing bag and dressed Kura back up into the casual outfit. Aya didn't say anything until she was done.

"You did well the other day, with the match we did." Brooke twitched a little bit, hardly even noticeable. She was hoping Aya wouldn't bring it up, but she figured it was inevitable. She sighed and stared at the sky.

"Not really, I still lost." She told her depressingly. Aya laughed and Brooke got mad, but when she saw Brooke's expression she stopped and blushed.

"Sorry, but you actually did really well. Remember that boy whose angel smashed into you after I threw her? He couldn't even lay a finger on my clone. You actually got to me even if it just made the situation worse for you."

"Okay then. But why were you so different during the match? You seemed almost evil to a point." Once again Aya laughed, leaving Brooke even more confused.

"It's a mind trick. I pretend to act so mean during the match to scare them, then I be nice to them out of the match so they get so confused about me. I think I got to you because I saw your expression when we met a couple minutes ago, and how you acted nervous. To clear it up I'm really like this normally. Don't know why I'm telling you, maybe because I saw the determination in you that I felt when I first started. We're alike you know."

"Ya think?" Brooke answered, surprised some. Aya nodded and took out Shizuko, who looked much nicer now. Also in casual clothes she was wearing a tank like Aya's, blue camo skirt, her gold rings, and white sneaks.

"I could tell the fighting styles were similar and once you get trained up you'll be a really good opponent. It only took you a day to fly, took me a couple days and people thought that was quick. You have good potential and stubborn determination, lots of stubborn."

"I'm not that stubborn." Brooke retorted defensively.

"Well you are stubborn from when I was watching you practice to when we were fighting. But you seem to be quite balanced out, nice strong personality." She swung her feet knocking over Brooke's bag with her uniform.

"Oh, sorry!" Aya apologized. She squatted down and put the uniform back into the bag, but not without looking at it first.

"It's my new school uniform. I just got it today, I imagined it to be much worse, and I never really liked the idea of uniforms." Brooke told her as she leaned down to pick the bag up. She put it next to her sewing bag so it wouldn't fall again.

"That's the school uniform for Nayoko Yasu, isn't it?" Aya asked, the tone of her voice changing. It had more of a serious note in it.

"Yeah, why?" Brooke asked.

_"Is there something wrong with the school?" _Brooke thought to herself. Maybe it was Aya's rival school, or something bad happened there that affected her.

"That's my school! We'll be classmate! I'm so happy!" Aya remarked shaking Brooke's hand vigorously. Brooke was somewhat shocked at the sudden outburst, but thought it was hilarious. But after Aya continued to shake her hand it began to get weird.

"Um..." Brooke laughed out nervously. Aya let go of her hand and went into a scary ecstatic mode.

"Oh! This will be so great! We'll have classes together and you will already know me so you won't be so nervous! I can introduce you to all my friends and show you around the school. I can tell you who all the best teachers are and who to avoid! There's this one bad kid, his name is Toshi. He's in eleventh grade and really mean, but I heard a rumor that he was moving, I hope it's true because in fourth grade he-." She stopped as a car horn honked loudly behind them. It was Brooke's mom, she signaled her hand to get Brooke into the car.

"Oh sorry, I have to go Aya-chan. I'll see you later." Brooke gave her a nice smile and slung both bags over her shoulder, grateful they weren't that bulky. She ran over to the playground and took Cobey by the hand and walked him back to the car. But before they could get to it Aya tapped her on the shoulder and handed her a slip of paper.

"It's my e-mail address. Write yours on here." she said, almost asking in a way. Brooke gladly took the paper and wrote her e-mail address. She handed it back to Aya who smiled. Brooke slipped Aya's e-mail address into her pocket. She strapped Cobey into his child seat and buckled herself in. As they began to move Brooke gave Aya one last friendly wave, Aya waved back. She then walked away in the opposite direction.

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"Made a friend?" Brooke's mom asked.

"Yes. Aimee get a job?" Brooke asked. Aimee was dozing in the front seat with her seat laid back a bit and her sunglasses on to block out the sun.

"Yes. They had a long interview that's why it took us so long. Sorry about that." Her mom apologized.

"Don't worry. Where's her job at?"

"I think she wants to tell you that. Wait till we get home, she's been tired the whole time"

"She's been sleepy the past two days."

"I think the time change is finally getting to her. She wasn't so affected when we first got here, but now she's getting the full effects of it." her mom explained.

"That makes sense. Whenever we went somewhere she was always the last to feel the effects of the time change and elevation." They were quiet for the rest of the ride. Cobey fell asleep quickly and Brooke entertained herself by braiding and unbraiding Kura's hair. It wasn't that long of ride but the day had worn them out. Brooke's fingers were sore from all the sewing so she rubbed each of them gently. Her back also had a sharp pain from sitting on the hard bench so long; even though she stretched the pain didn't go away.

They turned up their road and were almost to their house when Aimee woke up. She sleepily picked up some papers from on the floor and put the seat up. As her mom finished parking in their driveway Aimee got out, grabbed her bag that held her uniforms, and sped into the house. As Brooke took Cobey out and got inside the house she saw Aimee just disappear into her room. She didn't actually see her, but heard the door close. She didn't mind but knew she just wanted to sleep.

Brooke ran up to her room and put away her sewing things. She folded up all of her shirts, socks, and sweaters and put them in her dresser. She hung the skirts in her closest and put the hair ribbon, headband, and choker on the accessory compartment near the back of the closest. Last she laid Kura on her pillow and quickly walked back downstairs. Her mom was busy fixing lunch and Cobey was playing with his connecting blocks on the floor. Maple was sleeping again, resting peacefully on her dog bed. Brooke checked her watch- 1:36, a little earlier than she had thought.

Bored and not knowing what to do she wandered into the kitchen for no reason. When she spotted her tennis trophy on the newly installed trophy she knew what she wanted to do.

"Hey mom? Is there a public tennis court I can ride my bike too? There's nothing else to do." She asked. She wasn't exactly sure her mom would let her go out right after they had gotten home, but whenever her family got back from doing something Brooke always got bored. When you do something for a while and then go do absolutely nothing it can happen.

"Yes there is. If you down the hill and turn right there's a court just a couple minutes away. You can go if you'd like just eat a sandwich first and take my cell phone. Be back in a couple of hours alright?" she handed Brooke a fluffernutter sandwich and Brooke hurriedly ate it. She ran back upstairs trying to make as little noise as possible so as to not wake Aimee up. She changed into her tennis clothes and put shorts on underneath so when she was riding the skirt could fly up and she would still be covered. Her racket was leaning against her closet and she took it and twirled it in her hand. She didn't know if the gave out balls there so she put some in her backpack along with a water bottle, sweat towel, the cell phone, bug spray, and a few other things. Lastly she tied her hair up in a high ponytail and put her sports headband on.

She checked over her things to make sure she had them all, which she did. Brooke wheeled her bike out of the garage and started down the hill. She had to keep the brake on some or else she would go too fast and lose control. Brooke felt the wind whipping across her face and blow her hair back. She found the curves a little difficult when she rode at this speed, but after the first couple ones she had the hang of it. Brooke stopped at the stop sign and looked for any cars. Even though she saw none Brooke made the right turn signal and turned. Brooke wondered how far away it was to the courts.

It actually wasn't that far away. Brooke had to ride for a minute or two before she got there. She liked the ride there, there was a bike path that looked new with no bumps or cracks, was nice and wide, and perfectly shaded. She had passed a few people with tennis rackets also who must've been heading home.

Brooke locked her bike on the bike rack and took her racket off the handlebar. The courts were large, there were about ten courts and six back boards. Surrounding the courts was a large fence with netting going up even higher so the balls wouldn't fly out.

_"That's what we needed back at my old court_." Brooke thought as she entered the court. There were a few people by themselves and what looked like a class. Brooke went to an empty court with a backboard because she didn't have a partner. She took a close look around the inside perimeter and found a huge basket filled with tennis balls. As Brooke went over to get some she read the sign on it.

"Tennis balls supplied for the public to use. PLEASE put back and do not lose. If you damage any please replace them. Ordered by the T.T.C.W."

Brooke had no idea who the T.T.C.W were but took a couple of the balls, set her book bag down on a bench by her court was stretched before she began to play. As she stretched Brooke felt herself a little tighter than normal, mostly caused by the fact she hadn't played in a couple of weeks. Brooke rolled up and got the first ball.

She started herself out slow, just to get herself warmed up. She missed the ball a couple of times and had to go after it, but she regained her innate tennis skills quickly. Soon she was whizzing the balls to the backboard as fast she had done before her long break. Brooke could feel some of the other players watching her as their balls only went half as fast. The class even stopped for a minute to watch her. She felt a little uneasy with the attention, but kept hitting the ball strong. Eventually the class went back to working, but they along with the other people glanced at her from time to time.

Finally she got too tired and missed the ball. It went whizzing past her and hit the net behind her. As Brooke walked over to retrieve it her legs felt like jelly. Exhausted, she sat down on the bench and leaned against the fence. Sweat trickled down her face so she took out the washcloth she had remembered to bring with her. She poured some of her ice cold water on it and gently dabbed her face. She began to cool down and could move without feeling overheated.

Checking her watch she saw it was just a little after two. Brooke had plenty of time before she had to go back. She knew she wasn't allowed to go anywhere else, so she decided to rest up and play some more instead of just heading home. She searched through her bag and found her white wrist guards. She had forgotten to put them on so she did now. She looked up at the sky, day dreaming while she continued to rest. Brooke was just about to get up when she noticed another girl walking over to her.

She looked to be a little older than Brooke, but she could've been tall for her age. Brooke thought her hair was red at first, but it was a strawberry blonde and the light had made it look red. She was still too far away to see what colors her eyes were, but she carried a black racket. She seemed very sporty with her purple sport shorts, long red t-shirt pulled off to the side with a ponytail holder, her hair up like Brooke's, and a purple sport headband. All in all she seemed very nice and full of energy.

Brooke waited silently as the girl came up to her. They stared at each other for a brief moment before the girl spoke up.

"Hi, my name's Arumi Okanochi. I was watching you play before and I was wondering if you'd like to play a game with me?" she asked politely. Brooke took a quick look behind Arumi and saw some other girls sitting on a bench directly in front of hers. They must've been Arumi's friends and were watching to see what would happen.

"So?" Arumi asked in the brief pause.

"Wha?"

"Do you want to play a single's match with me?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure." Brooke said eagerly standing up. It would be nice to play a real match instead of just hitting a ball back and forth.

"Yay! Thanks, my friend Haruko-chan can referee for us. Wait, do you want to meet my friends first?" she asked suddenly. Brooke hesitated, and then found no harm in it.

"Sure why not?" she said. Arumi took Brooke's hand and pulled her over to her small group of friends. They stood up and smiled at Brooke, who smiled back.

"This is Shika-chan, Haruko-chan, Nara-chan, Akina-chan, and Misako-chan." Arumi introduced them one by one. They all seemed pleasant and friendly, so Brooke didn't feel too uncomfortable.

"Haruko-chan will you referee for us?" Arumi asked.

"Sure." Haruko said. She had light brown hair with streaks of pink here and there. They weren't really that bright, but it made her stand out a bit more. Haruko took a whistle out of her bag and quickly placed it around her neck. Arumi gave Brooke a thumbs up and they took their side of the court.

"Let's warm up a little first." Arumi suggested, Brooke nodded and did her standard warm up exercises. Haruko took her place on the court and was about to start the game when Arumi stopped her.

"Oh sorry. I forgot to ask your name." she said. Brooke realized she was right, Arumi had even introduced all of her friends but she had forgotten to introduce herself. She took a moment and thought about what to say

"It's Brooke Miyoko. Just moved here from Europe." She told them. Tell them a little bit about her she figured. They didn't seem to really notice anything about her being from Europe, Arumi just nodded to Haruko.

"Alrighty then, Haruko-chan you can start now." Haruko nodded back. She blew her whistle and Arumi who had the ball served.

"Love serving Love." Arumi started

She served it nice and clean right to Brooke's court and somewhere around the middle. Brooke's muscles immediately sprang into action and she hit it perfectly with a forehand. She sent it opposite of Arumi and she had to sprint to make it in time. She barely made it back over the net with a messy backhand. It was a hard hit for Brooke though, because it was so short. She had to stretch far in order to get it back over, but she did.

After that Arumi seemed to hit it with no problem. She wasn't as fast as Brooke or as good of a hitter, but she was keeping right up and neither had missed it yet. Soon they started to get tired though, Arumi began to struggle more and finally over hit it. The tennis ball bounced way out of bounds and Brooke had to run all the way to the fence to go get it. She used the inside of her foot and the racket to pick it up without bending over, and then ran back to the court. It was her turn to serve now.

Brooke called out the score and tossed the ball for a perfect serve. Arumi could barely hit it because it was a couple inches shy of the line. With her backhand Brooke sent it to Arumi's dues court. After that they went back into a rhythm, neither of them missed or sent the tennis ball out. Brooke could see Arumi was getting tired though, she was obviously not up to the standards Brooke was. Then once again she sent it out again, but only by a little this time. Haruko had to decide for a moment before she called it out. Brooke was just working up a sweat, but Arumi was panting and her face was dripping with sweat.

"We'll call it a time-out for a couple minutes." Brooke called over to Haruko. Arumi probably couldn't even hit it back being as tired as she was. Arumi gave a look of relief and went back to her bench with Haruko following. Brooke sat back down on her bench and wiped her forehead with the washcloth again. After taking a long swig of water Brooke watched her friends talking and trying to cool Arumi off as fast as they could. She wondered how much time she should give her.

_"A couple more minutes. She looks wasted."_ Brooke thought as she wrung her washcloth and rubbed it over her arms and her calves so those muscles wouldn't get overworked. She could feel her muscles tensing up so stretched her arms once more. During mid-stretch she spotted Arumi standing back up and walking onto the court. She was somewhat far away but she could tell the look of surprise on her friends' faces.

She thought Arumi should wait a while more but reluctantly got up. She was going to set up but she Arumi hadn't stopped walking. Brooke saw she wanted to talk. They met at the net at the same time.

"Something wrong?" Brooke asked.

"I'm going to forfeit the game. You're so much more skilled than I am and I can't keep up. I'll make myself overheated and I really hate losing, I'm a bad loser. Plus if we play the whole match like this it'll make me get home late. So I figured I'll leave so I can rest. Then when I improve I'll challenge you again. Is that okay?" Arumi asked, sounding sort of depressed.

"Oh no. That's fine." She looked down at her watch. A lot of time had passed without her knowing-it was now 4:24, "Actually I just realized I have to leave now if I want to be back home in time too. So it all works out, I guess I should thank you for reminding me to check the time. And I look forward to our next match, because you do have a lot of talent." Brooke told her encouragingly.

"Not really, I would have lost if I had kept on playing." Arumi replied, shaking her head.

"Hey, I'm almost at the professional level. Some people I've played can't even hit the ball back once. To keep up with me for so long means you have to have the talent." Brooke retorted happily. Then she just realized that was what Aya had basically said to her earlier. Now that she was seeing it from Aya's perspective she could see how right she was.

"You're almost at the professional level! Wow, no wonder you're so good. I've only been playing a couple years." Arumi gawked.

"Yeah I guess I am good. But I have to leave now so will I see you guys around here another time Arumi-chan?" Brooke asked knowing she had to leave soon.

"Definitely. We're here all the time, mostly around this time now."

"Okay, cool. So I'll see you soon then." Brooke said turning around to go get her stuff. Arumi walked back over to her friends and explained what happened. Brooke took her wrist guards off and left the area. Brooke unlocked her bike, kicked up the kickstand, and peddled back home. She enjoyed the breeze and the thought of making new friends. Her happy thoughts were interrupted though when she got to her street. It had been easy coming down, but she hadn't thought about going up. The hill was kind of steep, and her house was sort of far up. Plus her book bag was beginning to feel heavy and she was exhausted. She groaned loudly, reluctantly moving forward.

"I can't believe I didn't remember the hill." Brooke complained, getting off her bike as the hill got too steep. She lifted up the handlebars and bounced the front wheel to show her frustration. She knew she had till 5 to get back home, and wondered how long the murderous trek would be.

_"Couldn't be more than 15 minutes." _She pondered. After checking her watch again it was now 4:40. That would give her a few minutes either way as long as she didn't stop to rest. As Brooke continued on she had to open her mouth to get enough air in her lungs. Her legs muscles were burning and the hot sun made her sweat some. Now she wished she hadn't dried out her washcloth and drunk all of her water.

Her house seemed like heaven when she finally wheeled her bike back into the garage. Her watch told her it was 4:52. So it was about a 13 minutes walk without breaks. Maple was the only one to greet her as Brooke entered the house. Everyone else was resting before dinner. She let Maple into her room as Brooke went into her bathroom to get some cold water on her face. It felt so good to have the crisp cold water trickle down her face. She went back into her room and got some clothes, then changed in the bathroom.

Brooke took a book from her desk and picked Kura up gently, then flopped on her bed. She propped the pillow up and patted her hand on the bed. Maple got the signal and jumped up next to Brooke. Maple curled up and rested. Brooke opened the page where her bookmark was, and then something caught her eye. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it before.

It was a brand new plasma TV connected into the wall. It was the perfect distance away and just at the right height. There was a sticky note on the screen, so Brooke pulled it off and read it.

**Dear Brooke,**

**This is your early birthday present. Your dad and I knew how much you really wanted one, and we had some money left over so we got it for you. I've seen how much you love this Angelic layer so I ordered the Angelic Layer channel, this is what the preview says:**

**_Angelic Layer fans! You love to watch tournaments live and get pumped up with the crowd and intense battles. But the times you can't get tickets or just can't make it to them, now you can watch all tournaments on ALV-Angelic Layer Viewing! It broadcasts all national and local tournaments, along with Angelic Layer news and special bulletins! Call your local TV supporter if you want ALV!_**

**That's what it says anyway. I thought you would enjoy it. We also got Aimee a hi-tech laptop for her birthday. SHHHHH-don't tell.**

**Love Mom and Dad**

"That's so COOL!" Brooke shouted out, alarming Maple who raised her head in surprise.

"Sorry Maple." Brooke apologized and stuck the note to her backboard. There was a little cubby for the remote so Brooke took it out and turned on the TV. She scrolled through her many channels and found the Angelic Layer channel. It was some news about a local Angelic Layer tournament winner who beat a tough angel from the national tournament a year ago.

"That's right. I wonder when the national tournament will start?" Brooke asked to herself out loud. The news section ended and for a moment Brooke was staring at a blank screen. Then a separate news bulletin came up-from Brooke's area. It was about the local matches she had asked Aimee about earlier. It basically just said the when, where, and why; all of which was on the pamphlet Brooke had gotten. Only two more days to go until Brooke could play Angelic Layer again.

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Brooke walked into the school yard, seeing the completely transformed grass. Extension cords were everywhere, covered so no one could trip and unplug them. People were standing about, waiting for the matches to starts. There were about 7 smaller layers with plain metal fold-up chairs around each one. Brooke examined the one closest to her and saw a score keeping system built into the side.

Brooke got so excited she twirled around, her skirt swishing around her knees. Brooke had decided to wear her uniform today-to show people she went to this school. Aimee and her mom had protested, but Brooke's stubbornness came through for her. As she continued to wear it she liked it more and more.

As she wandered inside she caught sight of Aya. They had talked a bunch of times through e-mails and had become closer knit over the past couple of days. Aimee had a hard time keeping up with Brooke as she ran over to Aya. Aya noticed Brooke just as Brooke got up to her. She was apparently talking to another girl who gave her a quick friendly smile and waved and left. Aya turned to face Brooke and clapped her hands in excitement.

"You're here! I'm so happy, and I see you wore your uniform-as did I!" Aya twirled around, the uniform looking adorable on her.

"It was actually good you wore your uniform. Whenever there's something going on like this the students who go wear their uniforms. You'll see them as you search around." Aya informed her. She gave a side glance over to Aimee and smiled. Suddenly a loud screech came over the speakers. A man had tapped the microphone and had caused the noise. As people stopped groaning he began.

"Welcome to Nayoko Yasu's second annual Angelic Layer competition. I'll briefly go over the rules before we start. First you come and sign up on this piece of paper over here. When your turn comes you'll be stationed at a layer. There you will meet another Deus and the two of you will face off. You can lose, but only twice. Once you lose a second time you are therefore disqualified. When it gets to that point the two top players will face off for first place. All basic Angelic Layer rules apply. Give us one more minute to continue setting up, and then you can sign up." At that he turned off the mike and went over to another bunch of adults who were around the sign-up sheet.

"How far do you think you'll get?" Brooke asked Aya.

"I'll win like last year." She replied, half-serious and half-sarcastic.

"You won last year?" Brooke wondered in awe. But she found this much more difficult now. If Aya was competing and she had to face her again. Yeah, she would lose. The man then came back on the mike.

"Sign ups are now open." He announced. People pushed and shoved to be the first to sign up. Aimee, Brooke, and Aya couldn't help but be shoved over to the flimsy piece of paper. Even though the line seemed long they got low numbers. Brooke 13, Aya 14, and Aimee 16, Aimee had been forced behind one other girl as they headed towards the line.

"Let's see. There are seven layers and two can fit at each layer. So numbers one through fourteen will go. And that just happens to be us, how lucky." Aya calculated in her head, not that it was impressive, it was a pretty easy problem.

"Sorry Aimee. Guess you'll have to wait a minute." Brooke apologetically to her sister.

"It's alright. I'd rather scope out the competition before I play. I think the people going next have a better chance of winning."

"You're too optimistic." Brooke said as Aya shushed her, the man giving out the pairs. Brooke listened closely for her, hoping not to get paired off with Aya right on the bat.

"Numbers 7 and 13. Satoko Takaharu and Brooke Miyoko. Angels Amare and Kura. Layer four. Numbers 10 and 14. Seito Kimahoshi and Aya Uotoni. Angels Kohana and Shizuko. Layer eight. Those are the last pairings, everyone who is currently fighting please move to their layer now." Brooke and Aya gave Aimee one last wave before they walked into the ring of people and then separated as they had to find their layers. Brooke found hers quickly, not too far from where she was. Satoko wasn't there yet, so Brooke took a seat and waited. Another person walked up to her, with a nameplate that read "Judge". Brooke figured they had to have people watching each fight to ensure everything was legit and there was no cheating.

Satoko appeared a brief second layer. She was a plain girl with medium black hair and auburn eyes. She was a little chubby but seemed rather friendly.

"Satoko Takaharu." She introduced herself.

"Brooke Miyoko." Brooke replied. Satoko sat down and put on the headset, Brooke followed her lead. The judge pushed a button and the layer started up.

"Angelic Fight." The judge said unenthusiastically, as if he would have rather been somewhere else. He hadn't even given them time to put their angels in the layer. Brooke hastily put Kura in the layer, her eyes flying wide open. Satoko did the same thing with her angel. Amare had bubblegum pink hair, held out of her face with white heart clips. She wore a cute pink dress with a wide edge that _had _to be supported with wires to hold it up. She matched her outfit with white stockings that had pink hearts, and pink slippers with a red heart on each. She held a white staff in her hand that had a single pink heart on the top. Not surprisingly her eyes were a light pink.

Amare was tall but very slim, confusing Brooke on what type of angel she was. She couldn't hesitate though as Amare charged at Kura. She crouched down and tried to knock Kura over with a leg sweep. Kura avoided it by doing a backflip and spreading her wings. She zoomed over to Amare and picked her up by her wrists. Satoko seemed dumbfounded as to what to do. Kura rose as high as she could go, swung Amare around, and sent her plummeting to the ground.

Amare raised the staff above her head and began to spin it madly. It became one big blur as she slowed down and landed safely on the ground. Brooke was surprised that angels could do that, and realized Satoko and Amare must be stronger than they looked. Knowing that wouldn't work again Kura landed back down on the layer, taking out her racket. This time she charged Amare, holding the racket like a bat. Kura let out as yell as she ran.

Amare dodged thinking Kura was going to hit her with the racket. But at the last second Kura dropped the racket and skidding down on the ground trapped Amare's feet with her own legs. Caught off guard Amare fell over at Kura leaped at the chance. Before Amare could even move Kura stood up, grabbed one of Amare's wrist and ankle, spun her around, and sent her flying out of the layer. It looked like it worked until suddenly Amare stopped flying sideways and fell straight down. She landed on her back but was still in the layer.

"What? That should have sent her out!" Kura complained loudly. Amare shakily stood up and picked up the staff she had dropped. The two angels then charged at one another. Amare threw a punch, Kura jumped over her head. With her feet on Amare's shoulders she grabbed her head and did a flip. This time Amare was too close to the edge of the layer, and Kura's flip sent her flying out. The judge blew a whistle and Brooke giggle happily. Kura ran over to her ecstatically and gave her a thumbs up.

"Good job." Brooke encouraged her.

"Right on." Satoko took off her head set and gathered the fallen Amare.

"Is she alright?" Brooke asked. Satoko inspected her angel with relief.

"She'll be fine. Just a little dirt, no real damage." She brushed off the little speck of dirt and then bent over to pick up the fallen staff, "That was a good battle, you're very strong."

"You think so? You seemed very strong yourself. The way you saved Amare-chan from being smashed into the ground and stopped her from being sent out of the layer. That was really amazing."

"Thanks. It was all due to a little magnet in the heart of the staff. It can react with the layer's magnetic field and I can do all sorts of cool stuff." The judge then gave a small cough and the two stopped talking.

"Satoko can move onto layer number one and Brooke stays here." his dull voice squeezing the excitement out of Brooke.

"Well I hope you do good." Satoko told her.

"Same to you."

"Thanks." Satoko said before she left.

"Wait here for your next opponent." The judge instructed. Brooke was tempted to say otherwise but sat back down and waited. She saw that other people were still battling, or waiting for their next opponent like she was. Brooke also heard a couple whistles as others finished their battles. Brooke spotted her next opponent easily because he turned out to be the winner of the layer closest to hers.

He didn't introduce himself but just sat down and placed his angel in the layer. The judge muttered to himself and found the Deus info.

"Let's see. Deus Shin Iku and Angel Nanako." Shin gave Nanako a slight toss and she landed gracefully in the layer. Like Shizuko she was a dragon angel, but the styles between the two angels were totally different. Nanako was wearing a black Japanese dress with a gold dragon circling around the dress. Her pale red hair was in a bun with her bangs curled. She wielded a thin but long sword with a gold dragon around the handle piece. Kura looked at her with an indifferent glance, as if the fierce dragon look didn't faze her or make her feel inferior.

"Angelic Fight." The judge said again. Nanako held the sword in front of her and jumped high and far into the air. She was falling right on top of Kura, who dodged as Nanako almost landed. She wasn't able to dodge the attack completely as hard as she tried. Nanako plunged the sword into the ground and used it to throw herself and hit Kura with a sideways kick. She moved gracefully and was able to stand back up, but Kura was sent sliding far on the ground. It was almost a layer out but friction finally slowed Kura down.

Nanako wasted no time attacking before she jump-kicked and planted her foot hard into Kura's stomach. Kura let out of a cry of pain, but grabbed Nanako's foot. Nanako seemed to be completely unaffected. She went into a handstand and pulled Kura up with her. Turning on her hands she went quicker and quicker. Soon Kura and Nanako had a whirlwind around them. Then Kura lost her grip and was sent out of the layer, almost a foot away. Brooke closed her eyes in defeat and winced when the judge's whistle blew. The whole sequence had barely even taken up a minute.

Not even looking at Shin, Brooke dejectedly picked up Kura and checked for damage. Mostly she was just dirty, especially the shirt which was white. There was also a little tear on the left sleeve. The judge looked at something and pointed to a layer.

"Layer 5." Shin didn't even look at Brooke as she walked away. Brooke became depressed as she walked over to the next layer. A few seconds after she got there the match ended. A boy her age with black hair and his black angel won. The new judge said the loser's next layer and she left. The boy stood up and shook Brooke's hand.

"Jacques Aubair."

"Brooke Miyoko." Sitting down, she made sure she was careful when she put Kura in the layer. She still wasn't sure if the fall had done any internal damage. Kura was doing fine so far though, she could move and her voice function was still working.

"A little beat up there huh?" Jacques asked, this time Brooke noticing his French accent.

"I guess. It was that Shin person over there who beat me." She added with a depressing note, motioning her head over to where Shin was.

"He didn't even talk to me, let alone look at me."

"Are you from Europe?" Jacques asked out of the blue.

"Actually yeah. My family moved here from Britain a couple weeks ago. How'd you know?"

"Well besides your first name which isn't Japanese, you don't _look_ completely Japanese, and you still have kind of an English accent when you talk. Being from Europe myself it was a little easier to spot."

"Okay sorry there kids. Took me a little longer to get the information in. You can start now." The new judge interrupted. This time she was female and was a lot nicer than the last judge. When Brooke put on her headset the judge yelled out "Angelic Fight."

Jacques's angel was tiny and looked fast on her feet. Her long black hair covered up her eyes. Brooke looked but couldn't find a bit of color on that angel. Black crop, robe and boots, and a gray with matching gray pompoms at the end of the robe sleeves.

This time Brooke was desperate to make the first move. Using her wings again she flew close to the ground and fast, reaching out for the angel's ankles.

"Wait! Stop, stop!" The judge yelled out suddenly. Brooke panicked and crashed Kura into the ground. Another cry of pain came from the tiny angel, but she was still unharmed. Both Brooke and Jacques looked at the judge like she was nuts.

"So, so sorry. Um I forgot to say the angel's name. Our policy, sorry about this. Angel Nightshade and Angel Kura. Er-you can continue now." her voice drifted off and she turned away, embarrassed.

Kura had to back away now. The trick she was going to pull, ruined. She charged again, still wanting to make the first move. Nightshade stood there, supposedly looking at Kura, not moving an inch. When she got close enough Kura threw out a punch, Nightshade jumping over her head and to the other side. Kura tried and back kick but she missed by a mile.

Nightshade caught her leg and bent it in a position no leg should bend. Brooke found a way to use it to her advantage. Kura was able to quickly turn somewhat around and knock Nightshade over with her other foot. Kura was released and was back on the offensive. She grabbed Nightshade's ankles and threw her into the air. Finally using her racket she gave the ball a short but powerful hit and it went flying up towards the falling black angel.

As it flew the ball had a growth of white light around it. It hit its mark and Nightshade's stats dropped incredibly.

"That's what happens when you mess with us." Kura bragged as she collected her ball and the black angel crashed into the ground. Nightshade didn't move at first, laying in her crash position.

"Too hurt to get up? C'mon it wasn't that bad." Kura spoke to Nightshade. Nightshade began to move again, standing up and stumbling around.

"That's better. Never back down."

When Nightshade found her footing she stood stiff like a soldier and her hands were in a clap position. The area around her grew dark and formed a cocoon around her. The cocoon grew darker until it was pitch black and swarming.

"What the freak is that?" Kura said, backing up as it got bigger with every passing moment. Brooke looked over to the monitor, and found Nightshade's stats going back up. It was almost to full when the cocoon started to shrink and dissolve into the air. Now Nightshade was fully healed and looked stronger than ever.

"This is what happens when you mess with us." Nightshade said, the first time Brooke heard her voice. She had assumed she didn't have a voice. She found her speed had increased also as she was soon right on top of Kura. Turns out she hid a katana under her robe and began to slash at Kura with it. Kura tried to block with her racket, but the strings just got broken. It took Brooke a while to realize Nightshade was slowly getting Kura close to the edge. Then she became furious, Kura reacting to her feelings.

Tired of being pushed she snatched the Katana away and began attacking Nightshade with her own weapon. She got a couple tears in Nightshade's robe before she gave up and threw the katana away. The two resorted to fist fighting. When Kura landed a punch in Nightshade's stomach Brooke saw that she took more damage than normal. With every hit her stats seemed to lower more and more every time. With a final punch to the face Kura was victorious.

The judge's whistle was blown. Jacques sighed disconsolately, and took Nightshade and her katana out of the layer.

"Sorry about the robe. I went a little crazy there." Brooke apologized.

"No prob. Nothing a few stitches won't take care of. I'll have lots of time to finish it now anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"This was my second loss. I faced off with Shin in my first battle and lost miserably."

"Ahh, that's disappointing. Are you sad you lost so soon? That thing you did seemed pretty powerful."

"I think I'm alright. And the nightshade I did. That's where my little night angel got her name. It raises her stats and speed but with every hit she takes more damage every time. But it balances everything out, can come handy it some tight spots."

"Oh, I guess it does sound useful." The judge then gave a small cough, signaling Jacques had to go. Jacques stood up with a smile and bowed to Brooke.

"Pleasure to meet a lady of your caliber." Then he took her hand and gave her a quick kiss on her hand.

"Such a gentleman." Brooke said before laughing. Jacques laughed with her until Brooke's next opponent came up. Her gave her another bow and then left, leaving Brooke to finish giggling by herself.

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Brooke watched merrily as Aya kicked her opponent right out of the layer. Like Aya had predicted she won once again. Her opponent was Shin, and Brooke was glad to see he got his butt kicked the way he acted to rudely to her before. Brooke had done pretty well after Jacques had left. But then she finally got paired up with Aya and lost again. Aya didn't give her any slack now that they were friends, but Brooke couldn't care. Once she had lost she met back up with Jacques and the talked some more. Aimee found them, she had lost a little after Jacques had.

Aya came bouncing up to them with a trophy and a bouquet of flowers in her hand. She looked tired and flushed, but she couldn't have been happier.

"Congrats girl!" Brooke gave her a hug.

"Thanks." Then Aya spotted Jacques.

"Hey Jacques-kun. How'd you turn out?"

"Pretty bad actually. Lost to this little lady right here."

"Really? Good job Brooke-chan."

"Whoa, wait stop. You know each other?" Brooke said, holding out her hands to stop the confusing conversation.

"Yes. Jacques-kun and I have been best buds since he moved here last year. And you're out best friend too now."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Don't you think we'd make great best buds. It'll be so nice to have girl best friend. No offense Jacques-kun but it'll be nice to be able to be act like girly girl with someone."

"You mean to talk about boys and clothes, and do each other's hair. That sounds like a jolly old fun time." Jacques replied, making Brooke, Aya, and Aimee burst out laughing.

"You're a riot." Brooke said when she settled down enough to breath.

"He's never dull, and he's cute."

"Thank you, thank you." Jacques bowed over again and again to an imaginary audience.

"Hey guys sorry to break up you're fun fest but Brooke and I have to leave now." Aimee said out.

"Alright then. I guess we'll see you two later then."

"Oh wait Aya-chan?"

"Yes Brooke-chan?"

"When does the first trimester start?"

"Trimester?"

"Yes. Don't most Japanese schools use trimesters?"

"That's correct. But our school has adapted to the American's semesters. Ninth grade also goes into high school." Brooke was stunned. She thought she would have to adapt to trimesters and had tried to learn the times of a trimesters as best as she could. She also believed she would be in middle school for a whole nother year.

"Aren't there optional classes though? How am I supposed- sorry Aimee, WE supposed to sign up for those?"

"Well I'm guessing they'll call you guys in to figure that out any day now." Jacques said.

"I hope you're right."

"C'mon Brooke. You can figure that out later. We have to go help mom with dinner now."

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Brooke hustled around her house trying to get everything ready. It was the day before school started and she was trying to make sure she had everything together. As Jacques said Brooke and Aimee were called into the high school and chose their classes and optionals. Brooke had decided to take newspaper, which the school gave out once a month, and Spanish as an extra language since she already knew English. That also gave her one study hall to relax and get her homework done.

That night she couldn't fall asleep, every kind of feeling stirring inside her. Excitement, nervousness, joy, depression, ecstatic, blissful, tenseness, uneasiness, and anticipation of the next day. It was past 10 when she finally drifted off into a deep sleep.

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**A/N: Well I _tried_. That was even longer than last chapter. I tried not to make it so long but it just happened that way. I had to cut another part short again, this time the competition. If I went to describe every match that I wanted to, it would have added over another ten pages. I knew it was crazy so I took a lot of stuff out.**

**If you didn't figure out the thing about Aya here it is-Aya's mom is the Vice Principal of the high school-Mrs. Uotoni. There it was, not to leave you wondering if you couldn't figure it out.**

**Next chapter-first day of school and registration for the nationals! They're starting, it's like _finally_! By this time most of the characters have finished their first match or so, I'm taking it really slow though, or it could just be me thinking that. Look forward to it and give this story and good review. Thanks a bundles. :)**


	7. Welcome to Your New School!

**A/N: Here's chapter seven, wonderful spectacular seven. I mentioned last chapter that the Kanto tournament would be starting. The battles won't be starting but Brooke, Aya, Jacques, and Aimee will get registered. The battles will start in the next chapter or so, yay finally!**

**In chp.6 I said that the newspaper sent out an issue once a month, and in this chapter I say it says out two issues per month. It's two issues so you don't get confused.**

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Brooke's alarm clock rang from across the room. Someday she was going to build a stand next to her bed so she could turn off the alarm without having to get out of bed. As she walked across the room, she was glad her floor had carpeting. A wooden floor would have been cold and very unpleasant. Her floor in her old room had no carpeting and it was terrible in the winter.

As she searched for clothes to wear, it took her forever to realize that she had to wear her uniform. Her next thought stopped her dead in her tracks. Today was her first day at a new school in a new country and continent. Brooke began to shake with nerves as she closed the dresser door and took her uniform out from her closet. It took her forever to change and after Brooke placed Kura in her new school bad she went downstairs for breakfast.

Her mother had just finished putting breakfast down on the table when Brooke walked in. Brooke's mom had made chocolate chip waffles with maple syrup, crisp toast with lemon curd, bacon and eggs, and had opened a new bottle of orange juice.

"Good morning Brooke. Wow, don't you look good." Mrs. Miyoko complimented. Brooke sat down and began to eat. She knew her dad had left earlier, and Cobey was still sleeping.

"Where's Aimee?" Brooke asked as she helped herself to some waffles, bacon, and a tall glass of juice.

"Right here." Aimee replied, sitting down next to Brooke. They said their "Good mornings" and chatted about what the school would be like. The girls had also gotten maps of the school, so getting lost wouldn't be a problem for them.

"I just hope I'm in the same classes as Aya and Jacques. It'll be hard if I don't."

"At least you know _some_ people. I don't know anybody." Aimee complained.

_"She's right."_ Brooke though. At least she had a few couple friends, which was a comforting thought. Aimee was in a much harder position.

"Don't worry Aimee. You're a very social person, you'll make friends in no time at all.

"I hope you're right." Aimee sighed doubtfully, biting into some bacon.

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The wind felt calm and cool as it brushed against Brooke's face. The school was close enough to ride to, and it saved money on gas for Aimee's car. She had to mess with her skirt a little so it wouldn't fly up, it was a little uncomfortable but not noticeable. Aimee rode along side her, her face flushed and she gave nervous glances to Brooke. Brooke knew Aimee would be okay so they continued to ride in silence.

They had to chain their bikes up before going into the school. Brooke froze t her spot as she entered. Now that Nayoko was filled with students it looked much more terrifying. Luckily Mrs. Uotoni was waiting for them, and she signaled them over to her. She took them back to the office and left them for a second.

"These are your schedules. On the right side there are two columns marked Sem. And Qrt. In the Sem. Column a 1 means that you have that class for the first semester. 2 for the second semester, and1/2 for both. Same goes for the Qrt. Column. A 1 means you have it first quarter of that semester, s for second, and ½ for both quarters. There are ten periods in a day. Each is about 43 minutes, with a 3 minute break between classes. You don't switch classes, but it's just a break to rest or go to the restroom. You each have a study hall-that's in the cafeteria. Do you both know how to use locks?" she finished, asking them. They both nodded yes, their last school had lockers with locks also.

"Okay, I'll show you to your lockers. Follow me." She led them out of the office and down a couple of hallways. The school seemed so much bigger now that it wasn't on a map. They stopped at Aimee's locket first, it being closer. Mrs. Uotoni showed her how to put on the lock and open the cubby above the lockers. She helped Aimee get all of her things together and figure out what she needed. At that time a bell rang and the last of the students shuffled away. Brooke was worried now, she was already late for her first class.

"Don't worry about it. I'll just take you to you classes, Aimee-san you have study hall first. The cafeteria is right across the hall. The teacher already knows you're with me so just go in and he'll get you situated." Aimee hesitantly walked forward, giving Brooke a "Help me" look, but Brooke only waved her forward. Slowly she disappeared through the door and was gone.

"Let's see now. Brooke Miyoko locker 55, homeroom newspaper." She started to walk again and Brooke followed. They went up a floor and turned to the right. Brooke's locker ended up being right at he end of the row, and right next to the newspaper classroom.

"Now besides study hall, lunch, FCS, and gym this is the only other class you'll switch from. Your classroom is down that hall we just came from and to your left is room 206. I forgot to tell you sister but you can either bring a bento lunch or buy one from the cafeteria. If the weather is nice enough you can eat outside. Tell Aimee-san if you see her, alright?" Brooke nodded and Mrs. Uotoni told her the same thing about the locker she told Aimee. Finally after Brooke had the right things Mrs. Uotoni took her inside the newspaper classroom. Brooke felt as small as an ant because the teacher stopped talking and everyone was looking at her. She could feel her face turning red from embarrassment. The teacher walked over and shook her hand vigorously.

"Welcome Brooke-san. Mr. Snyder from America, great old U.S.A. Newspaper and 10th grade English teacher." When he stopped Brooke heard a click and found Mrs. Uotoni had left her.

"C'mon. c'mon. Sit down anywhere, lots of open seats." Brooke panicked, trying to find a seat next to a friendly looking person.

"Brooke-chan." She heard someone whisper her name. Her frantic eyes found Jacques waving quietly at her. She instantly crossed the room and sat down next to him.

"Thanks." She whispered.

"Anytime." He whispered back. Mr. Snyder began to talk again.

"Don't worry Brooke-san. Just finished saying that first we have to decide what we want to be, Do you want to find the stories, write them, have your own kind of column, do a short story, cartoon, etc., etc." he took a pause and then continued, "To decided I'm going to give you each a piece of paper. You write what you want to do, then bring it up to me. I'll figure out who gets to do what by that and announce what you get." Mr. Snyder started down the first row, handing each student a little square of paper. Brooke knew she wanted to do something with entertainment, but didn't know what. She just wrote down the best and funnest idea she had.

"Brooke Miyoko- write columns about popular future movies and give out the most accurate information about them." When she finished Brooke folded the piece of paper and put it on Mr. Snyder's desk. Jacques followed her they both sat down together.

"What'd you put down?" Brooke asked Jacques.

"Comic." He whispered. Jacques didn't ask what she had put down, but took out a piece of paper and began to doodle on it. Brooke just noticed how cute his accent was. It was harder to tell since he spoke Japanese, but she could still hear that bit of French.

The last person put their paper on the desk and then Mr. Snyder began to open the papers and figure them out. A soft talk began to fill the room and Jacques stopped drawing. He held the paper out at arms length and admired his work.

"Can I see?" Brooke asked.

"Sure go right ahead." He gave the paper to Brooke and let her study it before he explained what it was, "It's a female fox demon. Since the 'Aurora' runs off two versions a month and the comic has to be at east 10 pages long, I figure I could get a good storyline with her in"

"That's really cool Jacques-kun, but it sounds like a lot of hard work."

"Not really. I draw fast and overall pretty darn good so it shouldn't be much of a problem. Well that's if I get the comic position."

"You will Jacques-kun. The fox-demon is very cute. Have you chosen a name for her yet?"

"I like the names Haruka, Mine, and Serilda. The last one means 'maiden of war', powerful name anyway."

"Hey, I forgot to ask. What's you main classroom and locker number." Brooke asked. Jacques went through his stuff and found his schedule.

"Let's see. I have classroom 206, and my locker number 704."

"That means we have the same classes, but what about Aya? I haven't seen her at all."

"I'm not sure about her either. I saw her in the hall, but I lost sight of her before I could catch up to her."

"I really hope she is, although it's nice to know we'll be in classes together." Mr. Snyder stood up before anymore could be said. The chattering died down and all eyes were on him.

"Congratulations to all. Everyone has gotten what they wanted, mostly. We have too many people wanting to do an advice column. Those people must write a sample article and hand it into me by Friday. The best one will get the position, and the others will become reporters." The class waited while he shifted through some papers before he continues, "Right. I'm going to hand out your laptops. Mind you unless you're going to take newspaper again it's best not to put anything permanent on it." he rolled out a huge box and opened it.

"We get laptops?" Brooke asked Jacques, her eyes shinning.

"Apparently so." Jacques shrugged.

"Yeah only this class gets them." A Senior girl in front of Brooke and Jacques interrupted, "They're mostly for working on your articles, but if you have time they can go on the internet. The only thing you can't do is look up obscene stuff."

"Who would do that?" Jacques asked.

"Some really stupid people would. The first year newspaper gave out laptops this one girl went to all these adult sites. One of them had a dating service on it and the girl met this really perverted dude. They were caught in a hotel, obviously you know what that means, and the girl got expelled."

"Really?" Brooke asked.

"No."

"Then why'd you say that?" Jacques questioned her, a tad angry.

"Just to show you what could happen Freshman."

"You're acting like that's what we're going to do." Brooke accused her.

"Maybe, but you shouldn't assume. I'm sure boys are going to be all over you, and you'll have all sorts of fun little Freshy." By this time Brook's blood was boiling, but luckily Mr. Snyder came over.

"Detention Kayome-san, now stop torturing the Freshman. Go sit in the back." Kayome popped her gum and stomped to the back with her books.

"Just ignore her, it will get rid of her. She has one of the worst attitude problems I've seen in a while. It compares to student o mine back in the states. I don't know how Anthony's parents handled him." he handed Brooke a purple laptop and Jacques a pink one before continuing on his way. Brooke noticed that he skipped some students, ones who still had their laptops from the previous years.

"That girl was a freak." Brooke said opening her laptop. It looked brand new, which it probably was because it still had the protective sheet over the screen. Jacques opened his too, not seeming to care what color it was. Brooke looked at the clock and then the schedule Mrs. Uotoni gave her and saw they had about 15 minutes left of the period. Mr. Snyder had finished passing out the rest of the laptops and walked back to the front of them room.

"All new newspaper students and Freshman listen up. I'll go over the rules and enter in your computer data. Older students can listen if they want, or you can daydream, but NO talking." He gave a side glance over to Kayome who ignored him.

He went onto talk about the basic classroom rules, the newspaper rules, and how they were going to enter their information into my computer. He handed out strips of white sticky paper with each person's name on it. Mr. Snyder then collected their laptops to enter in their serial number and to make sure all data was legit.

"Tomorrow we will learn how to use the computers and how to make the article column on Word. Students who have already had newspaper can start working on what article they're doing. Jacques-san please come up here, everyone else wait for the bell." Brooke felt lonely as Jacques left her, everyone else around her was older, all Juniors and Seniors. She saw only a couple people who were small enough to be Freshman.

Three semi-long high-pitched "bings" came out from a speaker above Mr. Snyder's desk. Everyone stood up sp Brooke assumed it was the bell. Mrs. Uotoni told her what she needed to have for the rest of her classes, and Brooke already had what she needed. Room 206, Brooke turned onto a different hallway and looked for it on the left.

She found a bunch of students around her age piling into a room, and it had 206 over the door. The crowd of students slowly dripped into the room, and Brooke kept an eye out for Jacques and Aya. Jacques appeared a minute later saying that Mr. Snyder had told him about what he was supposed to do with his computer. They got seats next to each other and Brooke prayed for Aya to walk in the door. The girl with the black hair and dragon angel walked in at the last second. She spotted Jacques and Brooke and stole the desk on the other side of Brooke before another girl took it.

"Thank goodness! I thought we weren't going to be in the same classes together." Brooke sighed in relief.

"I feel the same way. I was walking madly earlier trying to find one of you."

"I know." Jacques replied, "I found you, but you were walking so fast I couldn't catch up. You didn't even hear when I called out your name Aya-chan."

"Sorry Jacques-kun. I thought I heard my name but I figured I was just hearing things." The bell sounded out again and a female teacher walked in. The class grew silent as she wrote her name on the board.

"Hello, I Ms. Satori."

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The final bell of the day rang. Classes had gone well for Brooke, except when she had gotten reprimanded for talking to Aya when she wasn't supposed to be talking. Most of her teachers were nice, only her Spanish seemed a bit out of it. Aya walked with her to her bike and they chatted about the day. Aimee caught up with them, talking nonstop about all her new friends and her fun classes.

Aya got on the pegs (1) of Brooke's bike and they left the school with Aimee still carrying on about school. Brooke and Aya had found out that Aya's road was along Brooke's route home. They wouldn't go all the way down to Aya's house, but they would just drop her off at the beginning of her street. Brooke and Aimee had also worked out with their mom that she would drive their second car, a pick up, down the road to get them so they wouldn't have to walk all the way up.

"Hey Brooke-chan?" Aya asked, shifting her footing so her feet wouldn't hurt.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you could come over to my house for a while?"

"I should be able to. Aimee could you tell mom I'm at Aya-chan's house?"

"Sure, no prob. Not sure if she'll pick you up though."

"That's okay, we'll take her home. I need to show her something important."

"What is it?" Brooke questioned curiously. She wondered if it was a present, or something fun they could do together.

"Not going to tell Brooke-chan."

"Puh-lease Aya-chan?" she begged.

"No." Aya said simply, her lips tightening.

"Fine then." Brooke did a back wheelie and Aya squealed as she practically choked Brooke to death. Aimee laughed madly, going slower since there was a chance Brooke could lose balance and run into her. Brooke held the wheelie as long as she could, trying to force the answer out of her. She was forced to stop because she was losing balance and Aya was strangling her.

"That was horrible!" Aya laughed. Her grips on Brooke loosened up by a lot and she relaxed immensely. Aimee caught back up to them.

"Brooke you're so mean." She joked. Brooke laughed and continued to peddle. Hearing a clap of thunder she looked up at the sky. It was off in the distance but the sky was turning gray and dark storm clouds were forming. As they got a little closer Brooke felt the humidity rise and the wind level increase.

"Brooke watch it! You have to turn!" Aya shouted at her. Brooke's gaze was brought back to Earth and she saw she was about to ride into the road of Aya's street. She lost her balance when she turned, the bike almost fell over on its side and neither Brooke nor Aya had helmets on. One of Aya's feet fell off the pegs and her shoes got a bit scratched but she managed to stay on.

"Oh, I so sorry!" Brooke apologized.

"It's alright. No real damage." Aya comforted.

"See you guys later." the two heard Aimee call out to them. They both waved without looking back. Brooke slowed down a bit because she didn't know which house was Aya's.

"Which side is it on?"

"This side. It's white with dark red shutters. We have a small fountain in front with a kneeling angel on top, it's just around this curve." Aya described. Brooke turned the handlebars and to make it around the sharp curve Brooke had to lean over to the side a little.

"Right there." Aya's house was the second house after the curve. The driveway looked newly paved and the grass freshly cut. The slowed when they got close to the house and Aya told Brooke to lean her bike against the side of the house. Brooke stiffened up as they entered the house. She was a little nervous about what Aya's parents would think of her, but no one seemed to be home except for a dog that came bounding up to Aya. The dog caught sight of Brooke and leaped up on her. Aya just took the dog's collar and pulled the dog off Brooke.

"Stay down Rie-chan." Aya commanded. Rie obeyed and left the two and lay down on a dog bed nearby. Aya grabbed Brooke's hand and pulled it slightly.

"C'mon, we have to go to my room. My parent's aren't home yet, I hope that's okay."

"No, that's no problem." They both walked through a living room, a kitchen, and entered a hallway. Brooke assumed when Aya opened a wooden door it would be her room, but instead it was some stairs leading up to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was another door that Aya unlocked to finally get into her room.

"Weird house layout." Brooke stated.

"Yeah I guess, but you get used to it." Once Brooke walked in Aya closed the door and locked.

"Like your privacy huh?"

"Hmm." Aya mumbled, searching through a stack of papers.

"What are you looking for?" Brooke asked. Aya didn't respond, and pulled out a single piece of paper.

"Aah! Here it is!" She handed the paper over to Brooke who read it with excitement. She became breathless and with every word she read her heart pounded even more.

"Are you serious!" Brooke almost shouted, Aya smiled and nodded.

"Yes, it starts in a couple of weeks, you and Aimee can enter of course. And they're doing it a bit differently this year than normal."

"Huh, different? What's so different about it?"

"Just some of the stuff. The company said they're expecting more competitors than normal this year, so they're splitting them up. There will be two sides and instead of the winner and runner-up going onto the nationals the winners from both sides go on. And instead of the prelims they're going to choose people who qualified to secret standards the Angelic Layer team has set. I was able to snatch the qualifications and me, you, your sister, and Jacques meet all of them, so we're in! You think you're up to it rookie?" Aya teased.

"Of course I'm up to it, and Aimee will too!"

"Alright, then meet me in a week and a half with Aimee, and don't forget to wear your uniform and bring you angel card that I gave you."

"Do I have to wear my uniform? I'm still not keen to the idea of really wearing them out of school that much."

"Well, you don't have too. But the school wants us to, something about showing unity or something. If you're really object it that much you can wear whatever you want."

"Thanks so much Aya, this has made my day!" The door downstairs slammed and their heads popped up straight.

"That must be dad, mom doesn't come home till later. I'll introduce you two come on." Brooke hesitated. Aya rolled her eyes and pulled Brooke up by her hand.

"Oh come on Brooke-chan." She giggled.

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Brooke, Aya, Aimee, Jacques walked through the doors of the stadium. It was crowded with people, some heading in to get good seats, others registering. All four of them were competing and had spent all of the past week and a half using Aya's layer to practice on. Aya had slaughtered all of them but Brooke beat Jacques and Aimee many more times than they had beat her. It boosted Brooke's confidence, but she knew the Deus's here would be just as hard or even harder.

The four walked over to the line where people were registering and after a couple long minutes and getting all their cards scanned, the Kanto tournament was about to start!

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**(1) Those little things on the back wheels of bikes that people can stand on. I wasn't sure if they were called pegs or not.**

**A/N: Yes I did have to change some of the stuff around to do the story like I wanted too. I've been watching all the AL episodes I haven't seen yet on (and that's all of them but four), and noticed my story is a little inaccurate. But it's a Fanfiction so I guess it can be to some extent. Next chapter, the start of the Kanto tournament!**


	8. The Kanto Games

**A/N: Bleh I'm so bad at keeping stories updated. I know I said I would update KA, it's been over a year, but I've reread it and it's just so bad. You can expect that to never be updated again. I finished the pre-write for the second chapter on From Hate to Love and will have that up soon. I'm sure almost no one's noticed Hogwarts Gym Class in the thousands of Harry Potter fanfictions, but I'm also working on that one too.**

**…**

**…**

**Yes! This is the start of the Kanto tournament. The true reason I changed the tournament around was that I didn't want any of the four to meet up with Misaki and Hatoko yet, well Aimee's the exception. I'm not going to say who's going on or not, but I think it's obvious. But then again I actually know what's going to happen. My brain is yelling at me saying just start it already-so now it begins! Splee!**

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"Ah! Brooke-chan, what side did you get!" Aya asked, practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

"I got side two, what about you? What side did you get Aya-chan?"

"That's the side I'm on!"

"Me also." Jacques said.

"Aimee?"

"Ano? Er-On no! I got side one!" she said loudly. A few people looked at her, and Aimee's face grew pale.

"Aimee, that's horrible. I don't want to be separated." Brooke complained, looking down at the piece of paper the lady had given her. It read:

**Side Two**

**Round Four**

Battle One 

"They chose it randomly. I guess there wasn't a high chance four people in a row would be on the same side." Aya spoke out logically, holding a hand to her face. Aimee groaned and dropped her head.

"This sucks." she whispered.

"Well, I guess there's nothing we can do now. I mean what are we going to do? Quit, just because we all didn't get on the same side?" Jacques spoke up.

"You're right Jacques-kun. There's nothing really we can do. Aimee, just be tough without us. We'll cheer you on when we get a chance." Brooke encouraged.

"Same for me, I'm not going to be depressed!" Aimee snapped back up. It seemed like fire shot from her eyes as she clenched her hand into a fist.

"Eh he he he he." Brooke laughed subtly, a little embarrassed because more people were beginning to stare at them.

"Let's go." Aya suggested, pushing the outlandish sister forward.

"Uh right!" Brooke replied, and they all started to head into the arena.

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Brooke, Aya, and Jacques sat in the waiting room, it being much later. They had waited patiently through the opening ceremony and now their nerves were starting to become intense. Jacques was the first one to go, Brooke was shortly after, and Aya was in one of the last rounds.

"They really spread it out huh?" Brooke asked. She might as well have been talking to the wall. No one in the room even seemed to notice she said anything. She expected Aya wouldn't be so nervous, but maybe she didn't do well under pressure like Brooke thought she did. Everyone was deep in their own thoughts, most of them staring at their angels or holding onto them tightly.

Kura was resting peacefully on Brooke lap, her outfit spotless and her hair was perfectly brushed. Brooke had taken extra care that morning to make her look even neater than she did before. She also took a long time to make up the perfect entry call.

She had also tried in the last week to make up a special move. Her best one was where Kura was on her hands spinning like a top. She was so fast it was like a blur, but still felt it was too-too common. Brooke wasn't even sure if any other angels had that as their special move.

A cheer rose from the screen placed in the room, the previous fight was over. Jacques head shot up, little beads of sweat dripping on his forehead. His turn was up next and it looked like it took everything he had to keep his composure. Brooke was the only one in the room who didn't look like she was about to faint, even though she was just as nervous as Jacques.

"Have a good fight Jacques-kun." Brooke cheered. Aya snapped out of her trance long enough to give him and encouraging smile. A quick wave was all that was given before he vanished out the door. Brooke sighed nervously and watched the TV anxiously, waiting for his battle to start. When they were ready the announcer rang out their names and angels. Then it was "Angelic Fight!". Jacques opponent was an almost all pink school girl type angel.

_"Opposites attract."_ Brooke thought, the opposing angel was indeed the opposite of Nightshade. The colors, looks, and even the type of the angels. Even so it looked like a pretty fair fight, each angel giving the other about the same amount of damage. Then the pink angel used her almost heart shaped bow and arrow to strike a powerful attack on Nightshade.

The points trickled just above zero when the area around Nightshade grew dark. Brooke knew what was coming, but Jacques's opponent didn't. The angel tried to run into it, but alas that failed. The announcer seemed to be in a shock and didn't mutter a word until the attack was over. The Deus seemed to be terrified now and was losing speed and power. With a final kick Nightshade knocked her out of the layer and he won.

The cheers were amazing and when they got a close-up of Jacques he looked much more relieved. It lowered Brooke's stress a little, but she reminded herself she had a battle after the next one. The new Deus's were coming out, and Jacques walked back into the room. Brooke rushed up to him and gave him a quick hug.

"Jacques-kun that was amazing! You fought much more brilliantly than you did before at Piffle Princess."

"Thanks, I got a lot out of watching you and Aya-chan. I can't say it wasn't hard though. There was that moment when I almost lost, pretty scary."

"Anyway you won so be happy now! After my fight we can all go out and celebrate really quick. Because even if I lose you and Aya mostly likely will have won."

"Aww give yourself some credit Brooke-chan. You're going to win also."

"You think so."

"Definitely, no doubt."

"Thanks." There were more cheers from the screen signaling the fight was over. Brooke was stunned it was over so quickly and the nerves that had gone away over the past few seconds came around back full swing. Her feet were rooted to the floor and it took a shove from Jacques to get her going.

The bright lights blinded her, but she somehow managed to find her way to her seat. She was a little scared as it rose into the air, and the fear she might fall off fanned her nervousness.

"In the east corner Deus- Miyoko Brooke, Angel- Kura! Brooke-san is one of the rookies we have here, along with her sister fighting on side one and who won her last battle with superb moves!" Brooke smiled after hearing that, if Aimee could find a way to win so would she.

"In the west corner Deus- Otsuka Yuji, Angel- Scout! This is Yuji-san's second time here at the Kanto tournament, surely trying to fight her way back to the top like she did last year. Will we have another 'Miracle Rookie' or will Scout bring Kura down to her knees? We won't know until we Entry Angel!" the announcer yelled out.

"Radiance of our destiny let us fight with all our power! Shine like your own star Kura!" With that Brooke threw Kura into the layer. "The angel descends!" Kura glowed with golden light, then shook it off when she did a couple graceful tumbles into the layer and then landed into a tennis position.

"We'll win the battle and the war! Soar Scout!" Yuji threw Scout into the layer. "The angel descends!" The short-haired blonde angel landed with a thud. She was dressed in an American army attire with black combat boots and a couple medals on her left chest. Scout was tall and mostly likely a power type, and her black eyes seemed cold and unforgiving.

"Angelic Fight!" Scout went straight on the offensive charging Kura down. She hesitated for a moment before running forward. When she got close enough Kura went down and tried a low leg sweep. Scout was wise and dodged grabbing Kura's shoulders. Aya had done this to her many times and Brooke knew how to shake it off. Kura brought her leg back in for balance, grabbed onto Scout's arms and shoved her to the side building up enough momentum to flip Scout over her head. The army angel suffered the first blow, but she was a power type and Kura a speed so she didn't take much damage.

Scout's closed eyes opened up and she jumped back to her feet and kicked Kura's open back so fast Brooke didn't know what happened. The kick had so much force Kura went tumbling almost out of the layer and she lost a lot of stats. The crowd went wild with cheering, but Brooke was filled with dread.

She quickly recovered Kura's stance and charged again. Scout waited and when Brooke tried a higher attack Scout gave a quick high-leg kick and knocked her back. It happened the same time every time Kura charged. She got close but she was blown away by one of Scout's powerful kicks.

It took some time before Brooke realized her weakness. Scout could do almost anything with kicks, but her upper body only seemed to be used for balance.

"Here we go!" Kura yelled out. She attacked left and when Scout tried to attack with another kick Kura went right and stopped behind Scout. Kura jumped on top of her shoulders and trapped her upped body with her legs. It was hard but Brooke managed to do a back flip, slam Scout into the layer, and jump away before she could recover her stance. It wasn't enough to completely KO her, but it did lower her stats almost even to Kura's.

Then the two went into a charging fit. Yuji knew her strategy had failed and went with both kicks and punches. Brooke tried her rolling top attack and it struck with success, Scout's body flew away and almost brought her to the point of losing. It annoyed Yuji who attacked with such rage that Kura had to go back to defensive, but she managed to get a good kick in and send Scout back to the ground.

Kura switched to offensive and as soon as Scout stood up she charged. She knew her attacks would take forever to wear her off so she focused on getting Scout close to the edge of the layer.

Kura got her really close to the edge, but Scout did something unexpected. She copied Kura's moved and flipped Kura over her head. Thinking fast Brooke had enough room to get Kura on her hands and flip Scout out first. The army angel went out, but she refused to let go of Kura and followed Scout right out. The audience was silent and there was a moment of tension.

"Well Scout was the first angel out so- Kura, win!" the bomb was released and the crowd went wild. Brooke smiled madly and hoped off like a bunny when she got back to the ground. When she got to the angels Scout was still holding onto Kura tightly. Brooke gently took them apart and gave Scout over to Yuji as she came over.

"Great battle, you really got me there. You a gymnast?" Yuji asked, shaking Brooke's hand.

"No, tennis player. But I guess I did do a lot of flips and gymnastic type moves in there didn't I?"

"Yup!" Yuji replied happily.

"Ah, it was a great battle and you're a tough one to beat. Maybe we'll fight again sometime?" Brooke asked.

"Sure."

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It was later that night and all of them were celebrating their winds. Brooke, Aya, Jacques, and Aimee had all won their fights. Their parents had taken them out for dinner and they just got out of a top hits movie. It was an exciting day for all of them, and Brooke was glad to be heading back home. She wouldn't be able to go to sleep right away. They still had school and Brooke was a little behind with her article.

She had all the information and she just need to type it, find a picture, spell check-it, have someone at school spell-check it, finalize it, and then give it to Mr. Snyder to grade and put in the newspaper. It would be their first issue of the Aurora, and Brooke couldn't wait to see what it looked like.

Jacques had let her see the finished copy of his comic. He had named the fox-demon Kimihira, deciding he didn't like any of the names he had chosen before. She was a seventeen-year-old fox demon who was at war with wolf-demons. In just the first issue he had the wolves attack and kill some fox-demon kits, and now Kimihira who was the alpha female was seeking revenge. One of her daughters who was only two weeks old had stumbled in on the fight and then it cut off, continuing in the next issue. Brooke was surprised Jacques was able to squeeze that much in, and the art and color was amazing. Jacques told her he wanted to be a manga-ka when he grew up.

The Miyoko's were carpooling Aya, so they took her home before pulling into their own driveway. Brooke was glad to sink into her warm bed with the laptop humming before her. She had let maple in and she was resting on her feet. As she wrote more and more Brooke was glad she chose this topic. On one site it had all the information and pictures she needed, then Brooke just had to write the information into her own words and set it in columns with a picture in the middle. The articles were only one or two pages long, and Brooke was a fast typer. In eighteen minutes she had finished the column, and she would proof it in the morning.

Brooke placed the laptop gently on the floor next to her bed. She tried not to disturb maple as she reached for the remote next to her TV. Brooke clicked it on and turned it to the Angelic Layer channel. To her surprise she saw the tournament being played, although she didn't know why she was so surprised. It said it would play tournaments right in the note her mom and dad had left. It had just finished playing the fight right before Brooke's, and she was glad she caught it right at the perfect moment.

She walked onto the screen and Brooke was surprised at how calm she looked. She hadn't felt calm at all, she had even been shaking when she had stepped onto the seat. When the fight started Brooke watched in awe, at both Kura and Scout. It was then she saw how tall Scout really was, she was almost twice as tall as Kura. As she continued to watch she found her movements were shaky, but quick. She would have to work on that and maybe her attacks would be more efficient.

Kura's face and yells looked to match what Brooke had felt at that moment, it was like Kura was a mini her. Finally when the angels both glided out of the layer Brooke turned off the TV, returned the remote, and snuggled under her covers.

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Once again Brooke sat in the Deus's seat. Her hopes were a little dashed today, she had watched Aimee's match earlier and to everyone's disappointment Hirobi had been knocked out of the layer and Aimee out of the tournament. Brooke had wanted to stay and console her sister, but her fight was almost right after that. Even with the depressing news Brooke more confident this time, more sure that she could win.

Brooke's opponent was Arari Moriyo with her angel Verdi. Brooke assumed Verdi meant green, because that was the color scheme of the angel. She had green medium curly hair, and green eyes that matched her jade green yukata. The thick dark green obi had bells at the end and the sandals had bells on the back also.

"Entry angel!" the announcer yelled.

"Radiance of our destiny let us fight with all our power! Shine like your own star Kura!" Kura flew down towards the layer. "The angel descends!"

"Verdi, peace is our strength and illusion will aid!" the green angel was thrown in. "The angel descends!" Verdi landed gently in the layer and posed into a peaceful position.

"Angelic fight!" Verdi just closed her eyes, clasped her hands together, and hung her head.

"What?" Kura practically yelled. The announcer went into a talking fit, but still Verdi refused to move. Brooke knew it was an amateur thing to do but Kura charged at the defenseless Verdi and attacked with a fast jab, but all Verdi did was dodge with her eyes still closed. Kura went with a kick, punch, a tackle, and everything else she could think of, but Verdi just dodged.

She remained in her soft state with her eyes closed and hung head. The shocked announcer continued to go on with a ramble about what was happening, and Brooke began to get annoyed. She was determined and charged again with a jump kick, and it finally hit the green angel. The crowd roared and Kura went for another attack., it struck again and Verdi was almost knocked out of the layer.

Kura ran in for the kill but at the last second Verdi jumped up and made it safe out of harm's way. Then she jumped so high into the air she touched the lights. Brooke didn't know if she did or not because she knew it was stupid to look directly into the lights. Kura ran into the middle of the layer and looked around for any signs of her opponent. Brooke heard bells jingle and Kura was just barley able to dodge the highflying attack. Verdi slammed back down on the layer so fast that it was almost impossible to see her.

Kura recovered her stance and sent Verdi flying before she could recover from the fall. It was just enough to send her out of the layer.

"Layer out! Kura- no wait! What!" the announcer cried out in desperation. At first glance it looked like Verdi had been knocked out. But her stats didn't lower, and Verdi never reappeared out of the layer, but right behind Kura.

"WHAT!" Kura yelled.

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**A/N: Mwahahaha! Cliffie-o-gram! What's with Verdi and why didn't she get knocked out, you'll find out next chapter. But I'm going to work on FHTL and HGC first, so it'll will have to be a little longer. **

**At the end of each chapter I'm going to take a character and tell you how they've changed since I've first imagined them, or if they've even changed.**

**First up is the main charrie, Brooke. Brooke's almost identical to when I first thought up her. I imagined her just a little bit more outgoing and much more loud, she seems to have become softer since then, which is what I seem to do with my characters. She used to be the type I imagined maybe falling asleep in class, getting sent out in the hall or get a detention here or there. As you can see she's nothing like that. Who knows, it might be fun to give her a detention, I just might do that.**

**Kura is more like the original Brooke, she shouts a bit more and is a bit more aggressive. She's not afraid to shout out what she "feels", and she stills has that soft side to her. I haven't shown that side much, but I will.**

**That's it for this chapter, please RandR! (Wow, it's actually SHORT! Less than ten pages!)**


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